Lies, gossip, character assassination motivated by politics are no ethical journalism

By: Themba Vumazonke

I am a community leader in Lower Didimana, a village 35 kilometres from Queenstown/Komani, in the Eastern Cape.

I was made aware of a disturbing article by AmaBhungane, written by alleged investigative journalist and published by News24 and Daily Maverick with the headline: “Insiders Warn, appoint Lindiwe Sisulu and you will get her controlling advisor thrown in“.

The first mistaken belief by the headline was to think that leaders are appointed in the ANC. As the former leader of the ANC myself, I know for a fact that we don’t appoint, but rather we elect leaders in the movement. My suspicion started there about the accuracy of the article.

I must say upfront that I have a moral obligation to attest and give an accurate picture of who Mphumzi Mdekazi is, as he is a child like many others from our community who grew up in front of me since he was a young boy. There are many young progressive professionals in our community and I am wondering why is there so much attention given to Mphumzi, but only time will tell.

I know not only his parents who were both professionals, but I know his grandfather (Ntsokolo Mdekazi) too, who was born in 1911 and was also married to Nobandla Mase (Mampandla), born in 1917.

Mphumzi’s father, who died long ago, was older than me as he was born in the early 1940s. Mphumzi’s mother is a retired school principal with 42 years of experience in the teaching profession. Both his parents were our role models in our generation during our time. They were both no-nonsense figures. Mphumzi was raised by his maternal grandmother, the late Nothemba May (Marhadebe), another no-nonsense, firm and frank figure in our community.

History tells us that Ntsokolo (Mphumzi’s) grandfather a well-known traditional circumcision surgeon (Ingcibi), took prominence in this community after the Witzieshoek revolt, which was a rebellion of Basotho residents in Witzieshoek in the then Orange Free State, where he was a farm worker. His sin, together with many others was to burn large acres of productive farmland belonging to white people, all in the interest of fringe benefits, then he left to come back home where he came to practise his small-scale farming and continued to be the local surgeon. Those were the struggles of labour migrants.

I am giving the above background to demonstrate the blood lineage of this child. Once upon a time, I was the chairperson of the ANC in our branch, I also featured prominently in the farmers association, police forum and the development forum in our community. In all these structures, I came across Mphumzi’s sterling and consistent contribution. At times, he went beyond what we expected of him in our community. He established school sports leagues both at the primary level and high school levels. He would single-handedly intervene in many struggling families, especially in times of need, be it funerals/burials or children who are struggling with educational fees. I have a list of all his initiatives and social positive interventions. If Sam Sole and Amabhungane are genuinely interested, I won’t hesitate to spend a day with them to attest to these together with other local leaders.

We have clean churches here because of Mphumzi. We interact with provincial politicians and leaders because of Mphumzi in trying to address our problems. We have graduates here in this community because of him.

It is Mphumzi who is a victim of crime in this community, starting from stock theft where his cattle have been stolen and his house burgled, problems that we all know. We even know the perpetrators. We would therefore like to invite people like Sam Sole who have taken a decision to make Mphumzi their area of sharp focus, to please come and ask us as community leaders about who Mphumzi is. We plead with them not to go behind our backs and interview criminals and expect that we as the community we will keep quiet, we won’t. We stand for the truth and if Sam Sole and Amabhungane are serious about truth-telling, they must respect social protocols. We are here, we want to talk to them.

Deliberate character assassination because of politics is not the measure of ethical journalism. We, therefore, invite Sam Sole and Amabhungane to do the right thing and come to us in daylight. We will probably slaughter for him. What he did in trying to destroy Mphumzi through lies and gossip was just too low and unhygienically pathetic. It is actually cheap and mischievous for a “professional” like him. It all points to hatred and venom. I don’t know how did he forget that Mphumzi has got children and family.

We actually thank God to have a child-like Mphumzi Mdekazi in our community because, like all young professionals will do, he looked after his home and his community with utmost care and love. He has been exemplary to younger generations.

We also thank God for his wife who has been exceedingly understanding when we positively abuse Mphumzi whenever we are confronted by social ills. We thank God for his mother for her dignified silence when we overstretch her son. Mphumzi is an asset to our community, he is the heartbeat of our community development. All positive-thinking people will attest to this.

Criminals and failures who are struggling with their own personal developments can’t be used as the barometer to measure Mphumzi’s contribution. I will therefore patiently wait for Sam Sole to objectively engage us as community leaders in doing the right thing.

To you Mphumzi wherever you are, let me address you as a former teacher and share the following words with you: If people hate you, it’s often because they are threatened by you, jealous of you or are feeling like you’re above them. So they will do everything in their power to put you down to feel better about themselves. The greatest people have haters for a reason, so take it as a compliment. Sometimes, the most dangerous people are the ones you trust most. Let go of toxic people starting today. An honest enemy is better than a best friend who lies.

*Themba Vumazonke is a community leader in Lower Didimana