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The court of public opinion
15/10/2007 09:44 - (SA)
Jon Qwelane
Last week the usual South African reactionary attitudes crawled out of the woodwork, and so liberal were the ill-informed condemnations of Jacqueline Maarohanye, executive director of Ithuteng Youth Development Trust in Soweto.
The condemnations were "informed" by the absolutely malicious and defamatory "stories" about her, her trust and students, which have been spread about her.
Today I am defending my stand, and stand by all that I have written all along about Maarohanye and her students and trust.
There were those who stated that they found her "dodgy" and said that by supporting her, I would no doubt support Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
While I see no connection between Maarohanye and Mugabe, I have never hidden my belief that Mugabe's real "sin" - the only reason his country is being so mercilessly targeted by the west and many whites - is that he carried the spirit of the revolution to its logical conclusion by returning the land to the dispossessed African masses.
In other words, by taking land away from the whites ("they never came with land to Zimbabwe, and they must give it back", Mugabe has said), he is being put in his place for being so "uppity".
Sterling work
Maarohanye, on the other hand, has been doing sterling work that has been recognised by many people locally and overseas and only the jealous types, assisted by a police station with highly questionable motives, have singled her our for victimisation.
Only last week the court case which had been preceded by reams upon reams of "reporting", falsely claiming she had kidnapped and assaulted a certain reporter, was dismissed.
The reporter had told the court that he had embellished his "report" for "dramatic effect"! He completely distanced himself from the version of the Kliptown police and the contents of a medical report which the police had produced in court.
More than that, Mabu Nkadimeng, the transport supervisor who had accompanied the forgetful dramatist to "report" on Ithuteng, told the court that all that had been written was a bunch of lies - he had seen no assaults, and had not been kidnapped or anything like that.
The cellphone which the reporter, Vusi Ndlovu, had claimed was stolen by the Ithuteng students had in fact been in his hand and he was speaking into it when he walked out of the school.
But such is the South African psyche, and the so-called "court of public opinion", that a wronged woman and her young charges have been roundly defamed and insulted by powerful sections of the media, and there have been no sanctions on the particular newspapers.
The rumour-mongers, not believing that there are people who want to practice honest journalism, have tried to smear me by innuendo: one of them asked a senior person close to Ithuteng: "Is JQ on the payroll . . . ?"
I dare them to malign me as they have Maarohanye and her trust, and I will deal with them accordingly.
Jon Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.
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