Vortex, your last post wasn't factually correct. We got television in this country in 1976 or thereabouts. Mostly local, but we did in fact get programmes fom overseas, which were mostly dubbed into Afrikaans or in some cases African languages (remember Rabubi?.....that would be spiderman).
Anyway, there was a lot of Apartheid stories broadcast to the outside world, but it was mostly incorrect as it usually showed white police officers beating up blacks....however it was greatly sensationalised as they forgot to mention in their stories that most of what theyu were showing were in fact faction fighting between the ANC (Xhosas) and IFP (Zulus). They also somehow never showed the acts of terrorism comitted by the ANC Youth League, such as petrol bombings, riots or sabotage (which caused numerous black outs during the '80s and also left us with situations where we had power shortages for days).
Although the government was trying to cover up the extent of their actions with Apartheid (such as deportation of anti-governmentalists and the execution of some of these while in exile with letterbombs etc) the image of SA as construed by the international media was incorrect rather often, which eventually lead to the government prohibiting much of the reporting that was being done. Another point in fact was that foreign (and local) media often did not report the views of opposition leaders, like Helen Suzman (who so vehemently opposed the 90 day detention law that she actually asked that parliament divided - she stood woman alone facing a room full of NP and CP men) or the efforts of other anti-apartheid leaders who chose not to use violence as opposition method.
As for Mugabe & Mbeki, yes Mbeki is a fart IMO because of his 'quiet diplomacy' re the situation in Zim. However, unlike in Zim, Mbeki will not be able to do the landgrabs etc. It would be against the constitution (which the ANC worked so hard at). Besides he would need a 2/3 majority in parliament to be able to ignore opposition MP's who have seats and even in his own party he would have a hard time convincing the people to do such a thing.
As for the article you posted, it is blatant hate-speech and as such is against the constitution. However, I have an idea that the ANC would probably put it down to pre-election propaganda.
I think the ANC will lose a lot of ground in the coming elections - mostly because they have been disillusioning their supporters for the past 8 years with little meat to the bones of their promises. A lot of the previous ANC supporters are moving to parties such as the DP and NNP (and even Patricia DeLille's party) because they are sick and tired of Mbeki's 'free for all' border control policies. Sick and tired of Zimbabweans, Mozambiquens and Nigerians coming into the country illegaly and straling their jobs. I have even spoken to some black people who are adament that their circumtances were better under the Apartehid rule because they had homes and could find work etc.
