MIH Naspers (Media24) a listed NYSE company may be in contravention of South Africa's TRC laws.
Cape Town: MIH Naspers (Media24) the global media group and one-time spokesperson for apartheid may be in contravention of Truth and Reconciliation laws enacted to pressurise individuals, as well as groups, into making fuller submissions about their role under apartheid. This despite a belated attempt to engage with so-called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in an effort to forestall criticism of the company's failures in this regard.
According to Vivier Jacobs, Acting Deputy Director: Victim Support TRC Unit of South Africa's Dept of Justice and Constitutional Development, "(Naspers) did not make any submissions to the TRC. Instead, they provided the TRC with a copy of Oor grense heen, the official history of Naspers." As far as we can tell, "that's where their participation ended." The unit is looking into the legal status of the media group, following a request from the Alternative Media Forum's "Campaign Against Corporate Apartheid".
The campaign seeks to address issues related to racial segregation and discrimination within the corporate context, and believes a broader focus on equal opportunity in society is needed, this is in addition to ideals such as empowerment and employment equity. Furthermore, local and international companies whose participation in the apartheid system is a matter of public record, are being asked to come clean on their activities, so that South Africans of all persuasions, can move forward.
Naspers/Media24 were once considered the bastion of Afrikanerdom. For years Media24 titles such as Volksblad and Oostelig, preached racial segregation and vehemently supported the National Party regime. Although the company began to transform following president PW Botha's tricameral parliament, their recent efforts to escape the past have merely lent credence to claims that the Media24 is still practicing a form of petty apartheid.
While Die Burger remains a title mostly for whites and coloured "people of mixed descent", titles such as City Press and City Vision are targeted exclusively at a black market."Without equal opportunity, ordinary South African's are stuck in their jobs, unable to move up the corporate ladder, and although some new faces are being appointed to boardrooms, the creation of new elites prevents mobility. The country still suffers from widespread unemployment caused as a result of the denial of basic human rights, opportunities which should be available to all, according to merit and ability, are instead being awarded under a perverse rephrasing of apartheid. Some companies have merely shifted their human resources to the right. Let's not make skin colour the basis for our country's development." says David Robert Lewis, spokesperson for the campaign.
Lewis added that, "an invisible barrier exists" and he challenged "anyone to cross the line separating black from white." He also said South African's needed "grassroots reconciliation outside the boardroom, not merely redeployment of past grievances in economic deals that are all pie in the sky." With no attempt being made to break down the racial categories and classification systems produced by Apartheid's social engineers, and despite the announcement of a billion rand BEE deal, Media24 stands accused of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination.
One should also note that the MIH Naspers (Media24) group have tried to gag the Alternative Media Forum from publishing incriminating evidence, related in part to Media24 involvement and activities during apartheid. A response from the group's legal department to an AltMediaF reply to the groups own legal brief, is still pending. A return date has been set down, for the close of business on the September 29, 2006, and AltMediaF will make further announcements, including directions on the way forward, after this date.
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA FORUM
CAMPAIGN AGAINST CORPORATE APARTHEID
PO BOX 4398 , CAPE TOWN 8000, RSA
MOBILE +27+82+425-1454
medialternatives@yahoo.co.uk
According to Vivier Jacobs, Acting Deputy Director: Victim Support TRC Unit of South Africa's Dept of Justice and Constitutional Development, "(Naspers) did not make any submissions to the TRC. Instead, they provided the TRC with a copy of Oor grense heen, the official history of Naspers." As far as we can tell, "that's where their participation ended." The unit is looking into the legal status of the media group, following a request from the Alternative Media Forum's "Campaign Against Corporate Apartheid".
The campaign seeks to address issues related to racial segregation and discrimination within the corporate context, and believes a broader focus on equal opportunity in society is needed, this is in addition to ideals such as empowerment and employment equity. Furthermore, local and international companies whose participation in the apartheid system is a matter of public record, are being asked to come clean on their activities, so that South Africans of all persuasions, can move forward.
Naspers/Media24 were once considered the bastion of Afrikanerdom. For years Media24 titles such as Volksblad and Oostelig, preached racial segregation and vehemently supported the National Party regime. Although the company began to transform following president PW Botha's tricameral parliament, their recent efforts to escape the past have merely lent credence to claims that the Media24 is still practicing a form of petty apartheid.
While Die Burger remains a title mostly for whites and coloured "people of mixed descent", titles such as City Press and City Vision are targeted exclusively at a black market."Without equal opportunity, ordinary South African's are stuck in their jobs, unable to move up the corporate ladder, and although some new faces are being appointed to boardrooms, the creation of new elites prevents mobility. The country still suffers from widespread unemployment caused as a result of the denial of basic human rights, opportunities which should be available to all, according to merit and ability, are instead being awarded under a perverse rephrasing of apartheid. Some companies have merely shifted their human resources to the right. Let's not make skin colour the basis for our country's development." says David Robert Lewis, spokesperson for the campaign.
Lewis added that, "an invisible barrier exists" and he challenged "anyone to cross the line separating black from white." He also said South African's needed "grassroots reconciliation outside the boardroom, not merely redeployment of past grievances in economic deals that are all pie in the sky." With no attempt being made to break down the racial categories and classification systems produced by Apartheid's social engineers, and despite the announcement of a billion rand BEE deal, Media24 stands accused of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination.
One should also note that the MIH Naspers (Media24) group have tried to gag the Alternative Media Forum from publishing incriminating evidence, related in part to Media24 involvement and activities during apartheid. A response from the group's legal department to an AltMediaF reply to the groups own legal brief, is still pending. A return date has been set down, for the close of business on the September 29, 2006, and AltMediaF will make further announcements, including directions on the way forward, after this date.
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA FORUM
CAMPAIGN AGAINST CORPORATE APARTHEID
PO BOX 4398 , CAPE TOWN 8000, RSA
MOBILE +27+82+425-1454
medialternatives@yahoo.co.uk
posted by ethnopunk @ 6:19 AM
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