The killing fields of Ken Owen's New South Africa

By Eddie Botha

I PITY colleague Ken Owen, who now writes a column for Business Day, the newspaper he was once fired from after one day in the editor's chair. Life is tough in the New South Africa.

Writing about the Tempe slaughter of white officers by black lieutenant Sibusiso Madubela, Owen asks the question which he says South Africans have been trying to evade for the past five years: Who may wield legitimate authority in the new South Africa?

The question, says Owen, is whether white officers should still, more than five years after the transfer of power, be permitted or required to impose punishment on black soldiers.

Incredulously Owen asks, should they do so, "even if it leads to killing sprees?"

The message from Tempe, says our prophet of doom, is that we must hurry to identify those jobs which whites should not, or cannot, do, and we must find or train black people to take over -- it may even be better to have a less competent black person who inspires trust than a white person who does not.

"Call that affirmative action, call it reverse racism, call it what you like, it is better than getting shot," says Owen.

Owen's argument astounds me. What he is saying is that blacks will shoot whites who impose punishment on them. But why only mention soldiers?

If Owen's argument is valid, police commissioner George Fivaz must be hiding behind his bathroom door right now, and every single white judge or magistrate should run for cover.

If his argument holds, why just confine it to the military?

Maybe, just maybe, this is the reason why Owen resigned as editor of the Sunday Times. Because he was scared to impose his authority on black journalists. In case they came looking for him.

Owen says he cringes whenever he sees white policemen trying to control crowds of black people. "Why do we still put white policemen in the position of wielding force against black people? It is plain silly," says Owen.

At Madubela's funeral a white police officer in charge of 200 policemen -- 99% of them black -- controlled the angry PAC crowd. No black policeman turned on their white officer.

Had the officer been Owen, he might have run away.

In his book, Ascent & Dissent, the story about the Everest expedition, journalist Ken Vernon wrote that Owen had resigned as Sunday Times editor without waiting for a successor to be named.

"It was a mistake to resign without waiting for a successor to be named," Owen later said, according to Vernon. "It was utterly corrosive and set the staff to conniving in the most despicable way and because it meant my authority slipped."

Does he want army and police officers to do the same? Does Owen really think black soldiers or policemen respect officers who are scared to impose their authority?

Owen's argument implies that blacks are by nature racists and that there is no place for whites in positions of authority in this country.

Crime pays

SAFETY & Security Minister Steve Tshwete says for the first seven months of this year the police spent 2,9 million man hours and R80 million in protecting members of parliament and cabinet.

A total of 1385 members -- 3,4 police officers per member or minister -- were on this job full-time.

According to my calculator that means a cost of R342 857 and 12 428 man hours per MP or cabinet member over a year.

I sould like to see the figures which relate to the protection of a member of the public.

Job screening

POOR SABC TV news executive Snuki Zikalala.

Reacting to complaints by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra), the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in three newscasts reported that certain "damning allegations" against Satra chairman Nape Maepa were confirmed by an independent investigator.

This investigator had been contracted by Satra to investigate allegations made in the City Press newspaper last year.

The broadcasting authority instructed the SABC to rectify any misunderstandings on all their TV newsbroadcasts.

Says Maepa: "I am extremely happy that the broadcasting authority directed the SABC to rectify Zikalala's blatant lies and false allegations against me.

"Zikalala's irresponsible, dishonest and misleading reports, caused severe damage to the image and credibility of Satra and its leadership.

"I sincerely hope that in future the SABC will pay closer attention to the truth, and that it will only employ news reporters with a sincere interest in the truth."

I wonder if Ken Owen would have reprimanded Zikalala, had he been his boss?

Good call

EASTERN Cape Gaming & Betting Board chairman Joseph Lukwago-Mugerwa and board CE Mac Gantsho have no such problem with the local press.

Announcing the successful bidder of a casino licence in Port Elizabeth and the not-so-successful bidders in East London and Queenstown, the two gentleman thanked the press for positive reports.

I even had a friendly call from Andrew Hendricks, a board member of Gompo Leisure, the company that failed to come up with financial guarantees for East London. No hard feelings.

Final pay-day

YOU could have enjoyed yourself at the Rugby World Cup -- or made big money. A group of rugby supporters are soon flying out to watch the games for which they have bought tickets.

Should the Boks make the finals, they will all be there waving the flag.

But for some, a final featuring any of the northern hemisphere countries, England in particular, could mean a big pay day. A ticket to the sold-out final costs up to £1200 (in my book that is R12000).

What an Englishman without a ticket wouldn't pay to get one!