ANC bully Jesse Duarte loses the media plot…
Like a couple of thousand others I have listened to ANC Spokesperson Jesse Duarte’s interaction with Times journalist Philani Nombembe with my jaw on the floor. If you haven’t yet heard it, listen to it now.
http://multimedia.timeslive.co.za/audio/2009/04/duarte-blows-her-top/
A more deeply patronising, arrogant assault on a young guy just doing his job you’re unlikely to hear anywhere. What makes it even more disturbing is that it also displays a deep ignorance of new media on the part of the ANC’s chief communicator.
First she gets all defensive about whether or not the ANC is emulating Barrack Obama. She denies this, which is clearly absurd. When someone has paved the way in a new field, i.e. using social media to drive a political campaign, and you do the same thing a few months later, of course you are emulating them. You may be doing it slightly differently, possibly even better in some areas. You’ll almost certainly adapt the model for local conditions. But you are emulating, and that’s ok. Duarte then embarks on a mini lecture with Mr Nombembe about whether or not Social Media practitioners create emotional connections with their audiences. “I think that for us “the blogs are more…a conversation with voters…and whether it creates an emotional [link], that’s taking it a bit far. In an election campaign its really unlikely to have emotional links with 12 000 – 13 000 people.” Tell that to the couple of million people who were sufficiently emotionally moved by their interaction with Barrack Obama to open their wallets to him. Of course there’s an emotional link – that’s what happens in the world of social media. That’s why it works. That’s why political parties use it. Duh.
In the course of the conversation Duarte calls the journalist a member of the third force, and implies that he is racist (because, as we all know, any criticism of the ANC President is racist. It’s not an honest expression of a man’s shortcomings). There’s no way she would have adopted that approach and tone were she dealing with a more senior Times journalist or more influential columnist, like Fred Khumalo or Mondli Makhanya. In Nombembe she found a weak victim, a young relatively unknown journalist without the stature and experience of some of his colleagues. And so she moved in for the kill, making her nothing more than an arrogant bully. There’s no other way to put it. And as a professional communicator and media “handler” she has proven to be hopelessly incompetent.
Similarly in her performance on the BBC’s Today programme, Duarte came across as defensive, arrogant and insulting. Granted the programme’s style of interviewing is more robust and direct than the ANC expects from a State Broadcaster, but hurling accusations of colonialism at your interviewer and claiming the high ground because South Africa doesn’t take photographs of its citizen’s dustbins (WTF???) is simply immature and petulant.
I worked as a media relations manager in a big company for a couple of years and if I had ever spoken to a journalist like Duarte did to Nombembe or Humphreys I would have, quite rightly, been fired on the spot. Perhaps we can hope that, when he is President, Mr Zuma will remember his election promise to weed out non-performance wherever he finds it. In Ms Duarte’s case, he doesn’t have to look far.
While on Social Media, the same Ms Duarte sat down to Tweet with the non-emotionally-connected middle class on Twitter on Friday. And proved yet again that she (and/or the party) is ignorant about the way medium works. They invited questions from Twitter users, tagged @ANC_Debate. I watched for a while, even submitted a few questions of my own. I soon realised – as did many others watching and commenting – that it was a pointless exercise and there was no actual debate happening. Only questions that gave Duarte a chance to repeat the ANC’s manifesto were actually responded to. The rest, the ANC hoped, would disappear into the ether. Of course they didn’t.
Here’s a sample of some questions that were responded to, and some that weren’t. Draw your own conclusions about how bold the ANC was to enter the world of social media:
| Questions answered and comments published | Questions and comments ignored |
| No users were banned or blocked from the debate. We answered as many questions as we could in the time allowed
there seems to be very little patriotism at the moment any plans on improving this? If so how? how will these decent jobs be created? What is the party’s stance on quotas on our sportings teams? How will you keep the public informed about the status of your full HIV “aggressive prevention campaign”? could you point out 2 key policies that the ANC administration would champion what will ANC do about AIDS in next 5 years? What do you have to say against allegations that South Africa’s media will be curtailed by the government after the election? Apart from election talks, the ANC has generally been seen as “anti-white”. Why should the people believe otherwise? What is the ANC’s definition of a Leader? Do you believe that cartoonists are too irreverent? Would the ANC like to regulate satire? What is the ANC’s opinion on the general public’s perception that the ANC = the government? How do you plan to meet SA power needs while limiting our carbon footprint. Focus seems to be coal What will the ANC do regarding to public transport services? What will you be doing about the corruption in SA? What is the ANC’s strategy to bring effectiveness to municipal management that has crumbled across SA this decade? in the ANC’s opinion,what is the root cause of poverty and crime? Hi Jessi,It seems like nothing much has been done in the Rural areas,speciafically Mhlabuyalingana in Far North,what’s the plan. Where will the cash come from for the “massive public investment”? what will you do about crime in south africa? Let’s talk economy: What are you going to do to stop a local recession? What about unemployment? |
‘building patriotism’? Wouldn’t it be better to work on removing xenophobia first?
Would you mind revealing how many of our 23 million registered voters are actually rural corpses? Is the ANC happy about the graffito scrawled on Zuma posters in Sandton: ‘Zumababwe’? Is a ‘patriot’ someone who ignores the lack of clothing on the emperor’s oiled naked body? Or the truthteller? What is the ANC doing to protect the source of graft and corrruption? With no economy there can be no bribes. This is not a debate, it is a questions and answers session. Dont try to fool us. You are still too scared to debate. Please do not tell lies, my question was one of the first, never got answered and never appeard in the list many perceive it as party before country. you might be out of touch there considering recent ANCYL comments. Can the ANC change the Embelm of our Rugby Team and state ‘Apartheid’ as a reason, when the players are still chosen on colour How are you going to ensure that BEE helps the poor and not the rich getting richer? I suggest you answer the real questions with real answers and leave the script at home Debate was a sham, I asked one tough question and got blocked and ignored R200m spent on ANC election campaign top story on News24 – how about using some of that on AIDS awareness instead why is it the every time a white person questions the ANC views, he/she is branded racist?? What will the ANC do to ensure that the land reform programme doesn’t have the same result as Zimbabwe’s? How do we trust a prty which puts convicted criminals in parliament, regardless of the offence? ANC has a track record for corruption and fruitless expenditure. How are u going to clear your name? Is the ANC considering an overhaul of the courts simply because it wants to protect its future first citizen? u say that u will strengthen anti-corruption measures, but you’ve been in power for 15 years. Why haven’t you addressed this b4? how can the ANC let JZ remain as their candidate when he hasn’t answered allegations in court? He still has a cloud over him. |
