Spineless, maskless MPs need to be punished
Last week we sadly lost Karima Brown to Covid.
She is of course not the first journalist to die of COVID. A number have passed away after becoming infected in South Africa.
The Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign said in January that more than 600 journalists have died of COVID-19 in over 59 countries in the last 10 months of 2020.
Journalists put their lives at risk in order for us to get the news. They keep us informed and entertained. They do not have the luxury to stay inside, because if they did we would not be able to know what is going on in the world while we are isolating.
The fact that they have to speak to people both on and off camera - or in the case of radio microphones - means that they and their camera and or sound people put themselves directly in the line of the virus. When you interview people, you have to stay close to them. Even with a long sound boom, it is difficult to get enough physical distancing.
Microphones are also like petri-dishes. When people speak into them, the spit and of course the accompanying germs get embedded into the fabric covering the metal parts.
Thus, it is important that both the interviewer and interviewee take the necessary precautions -especially during a pandemic.
A lot has been said about the whole eNCA mask drama and I do not want to revisit the issue insofar as it relates to race. However, there is one angle that I believe has not been covered.
On Budget 2021 night I was watching proceedings on the SABC Channel. As is the practice with all the major media houses, once the proceedings have finished inside parliament, they cut to a journalist stationed outside the door of parliament whose task it is to interview MPs as they exit.
The leader of the Freedom Front+, Pieter Groenewald, was one the first to exit and they asked him for comment.
I was immediately struck by the fact that he was not wearing a mask. In hindsight, it is clear that after his interview with SABC, he moved over to do an interview with eNCA and presumably with other media outlets still without a mask.
There were numerous other MPs (from various parties) who did the same.
As ordinary citizens, we all know that not wearing a mask is not legal, and that The Disaster Management Act states clearly that “The wearing of a face mask is mandatory for every person when in a public place. “
It goes on to say: “No person will be allowed to-
(a) use, operate, perform any service on any form of public transport;
(b) enter or be in a building, place or premises, including government buildings, places or premises, used by the public to obtain goods or services; or
(c) be in any public open space, if he or she is not wearing a face mask
There is no question whatsoever that these MPs were breaking the law.
So here is my question: Why is it up to journalists to tell or ask the lawmakers of the land to abide by their own law? Surely, they should just do what is expected of all of us and follow the law of their own accord?
By not doing so they not only put journalists in impossible situations but also put their lives and those of their crews at risk. They also endanger the lives of those who come after them, since during these types of live broadcasts there is not enough time to properly sterilise a microphone in between interviews.
It should also be noted that the MPs were in close proximity to their other parliamentary colleagues who mingled outside.
On the morning that the eNCA story started circulating, I called someone senior in the Freedom Front + and insisted that Pieter Groenewald take some responsibility for the fact that he wasn’t wearing a mask. Knowing the person that I spoke to, I am sure that he conveyed the message.
Yet, Pieter Groenewald cowardly stayed quiet and allowed a journalist to take the full brunt of the furore that erupted. As did all the other mask-less MPs.
Shame on you all.
The Human Rights Commission will investigate the allegation of racism against the journalist. That is the correct procedure and we should wait for their report.
However, the conduct of the mask-less MPs should also be investigated. The only exemption to wearing a mask in public is if you are doing rigorous exercise. Clearly listening to Tito Mboweni can in no way be deemed as taxing physically (perhaps not even mentally), nor can speaking to journalists. So there is absolutely no excuse for them to have been breaking the law by not wearing masks.
Let’s hope that the speaker and parliament will discipline the guilty members and that they will in turn grow a moral backbone and take responsibility for their actions.