Please can TV news stations stop subjecting us to all the melodrama that comes with Jacob Zuma's court appearances, writes David Gant, as the former president prepares to head to court again.
The melodrama that
boringly plays out every time former president Jacob Zuma emerges from his
never-ending court appearances is not deserving of the TV air time it is given.
Same old cast, same old script, same old exaggerated emotional rhetoric, same old irrational and illogical pronouncements of his innocence.
It seems as if they view the ever-dwindling and largely unenthusiastic crowds as some kind of jury declaring him not guilty rather than a court of law presided over by a judge. This is perhaps predictable given Zuma and his cronies' disrespect of the rule of law.
The Niehaus, Yengeni, Magashule and Zuma quartet's oratory promotes the notion that to be ANC and support RET gives them carte blanche to steal, loot, lie and indulge themselves and their friends by enabling acts of state capture - all in the name of the revolution.
They target the DA as the enemy of "our" people to be opposed at all costs as if it, not the ANC, is the party responsible for the wretched state that so many of our citizens find themselves in.
They blindly and proudly swear undying loyalty to the ANC, the very organisation they are tearing apart and perpetuate the big lie that they occupy the high moral ground and have overwhelming support throughout the ANC.
One can only hope that we are not going to be subject to this mindless drivel on Wednesday and all the other countless occasions that Zuma is likely to be in and out of this court in the months and years to come.
Footage of the trial is valuable to our understanding of the issues and the processes. There is nothing to be gained by watching the same display of bravado and bombast over and over again.
- David Gant, Kenilworth