Best News Coverage On Mandela's Life And Death

It's kinda insensitive to run comparison at a time like this but the reality is that I am a television commentator. I do not just watch television, it is my job to watch it and have an opinion. Having being bombarded with coverage of Madiba's passing and his life story all week, I have come to conclusion that the best coverage of this momentous event in our history comes from CNN International.

Sadly, our local reporters across all three 24 hour news channels and the other local channels have lagged behind in giving a comprehensive coverage of Madiba's life and death.

While eNews and SABC are busy running reruns of the same documentaries everyday and telling us every 5 minutes that there are people gathered outside Mandela's home in Houghton, international reporters are going out there to find fresh angles to the Mandela story.





CNN journalist Robin Curnow has been excellent from Thursday evening when the news broke in covering the event.

Robin's reports give you an insight into the Madiba - the man. She regaled her colleagues on Friday about Mandela's sometimes charming "inappropriateness" when he spoke to people.

 

When South African reporters are too busy pushing the Messiah propaganda, international reporters are non-bias and have removed emotions and branding out of the story. They are telling the story as is.

None of the South African news channel has reported on:

• Journalists are being charged to use toilets in Qunu.

• Criticism towards Madiba for not speaking out against his ANC comrades

• Madiba's relationship with Samora Machel and his subsequent marriage to his friend's wife after he died

• Indepth analysis on the influence that Che Guevera and Fidel Castro had on Mandela

• Mandela's reaction towards Margaret Thatcher and Donald Reagan calling him a terrorist

Instead South African journos are busy reporting on how Mandela is seen as the second Moses. Further withdrawing Madiba the human-being from the people and making him this mythical being.

What South African media is failing to understand is that by pushing this propaganda to make Madiba a saint, they are taking away the connection he had with the people. You take away his humanness, you erode his humanity.