South African journalist Sam Mkokeli was manhandled and thrown out of the 54th national conference of the African National Congress (ANC) in Nasrec, Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
Mkokeli’s media accreditation tag was also removed following a scuffle with security personnel after he tried to lead a group of journalists from one venue to another.
This happened after journalists waited outside in the heat to be addressed by newly-elected president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, for more than 40 minutes following his walkabout of the conference venue.
Mkokeli, the sub-committee chairman on media freedom for the SA National Editors Forum (Sanef), got himself embroiled in a scuffle with ANC security personnel after deciding that the group of about 80 journalists should not be made to wait for that long because they had deadlines, and requested to be taken back to the media centre from Hall 5 of the conference venue.
His requests fell on deaf ears as ANC security personnel told him that there was were no guards available to escort the journalists back to the media centre as they were with Ramaphosa, and failing which the journalists should walk around the venue instead of going through.
A scuffle then ensued, resulting in an ANC security official threatening Mkokeli with revoking his media accreditation and removing the tag around his neck. To this, Mkokeli then said if the security official wanted to take it, then he must.
Mkokeli was then escorted out of the venue and led past the gate, where upon further argument, the ANC security official manhandled him while an SA Police Service officer tried to stop another journalist from capturing a video of the incident on her cellphone. The video has since been circulating on social media.
Mkokeli said that he did not do this for himself but for many journalists who were missing their deadlines because of an endless wait and were being harassed by security guards.
This ANA journalist and other photographers were earlier forced to delete pictures of police searching members of the media as they were entering the venue following another coordination blunder around Ramaphosa’s walkabout.
“This is not about me. If we allow this to happen, it means another five years of this thing continuing,” Mkokeli said.
Mkokeli also alleged that there had been a disabled photographer who had been pushed around and his prosthetic leg came off at the plenary hall on Monday during the announcement of the ANC leadership results and that security forced journalists to delete the footage of the incident.
Sanef chairperson Mahlatse Gallens said that they were setting up an emergency meeting with the ANC to address the media freedom issue at the conference and gather the facts around the incident involving Mkokeli before commenting. Gallens said Sanef will either call a media briefing or issue a statement after the meeting to communicate the forum’s position on the issue.
ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa was not immediately available for comment.
– African News Agency (ANA)
