News24 | Ramaphosa mulls social media restrictions at press freedom event

• President Cyril Ramaphosa has suggested SA may need to consider social media restrictions, citing the spread of dangerous misinformation and the role of online platforms in the July 2021 unrest.
• Speaking on Black Wednesday, which commemorates the apartheid government’s 1977 crackdown on the media, Ramaphosa pointed to the UK and Australia as countries considering restrictions on children’s access to social media.
• Ramaphosa also defended his government’s economic reform record, acknowledged declining electoral support and warned that losing access to the US’s AGOA trade programme would be devastating for jobs.
• For more political news, visit News24 Politics.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has suggested South Africa may need to consider restricting social media platforms, citing the spread of dangerous misinformation – a proposal he floated at an event commemorating Black Wednesday, a watershed moment in the fight for media freedom.

Speaking to journalists and editors on Monday, in his capacity as ANC president, at the commemoration of the day the apartheid government banned multiple newspapers and media organisations in 1977, Ramaphosa said the country had not yet given the matter serious thought but noted that “living democracies”, including the UK and Australia, were moving to restrict children’s access to social media.

“We see living economies and living democracies, if you like, [the] UK [and] Australia, doing things like that. We have not reached that level, and I guess our glass ceiling is caused by our adherence to media freedom,” Ramaphosa said.

The president cited the July 2021 unrest, during which social media was used to foment violence that left more than 350 people dead and caused billions of rand in economic damage, as evidence of the platform’s potential dangers.

“When it gets to a point where lies are peddled, false stories are told, then it becomes important because it could also border on being very dangerous,” he said.

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Ramaphosa specifically dismissed as “rubbish” a social media story claiming the ANC was mobilising asylum seekers to vote for the party.

He said:

There’s just no way that the ANC will go and mobilise asylum seekers to vote for it. There’s just no way. It’s a rubbish story. It does not exist.

He referred to this as an example of how unaccountable individuals can plant false stories that gain traction online.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that constitutional protections for freedom of expression remained a constraint.

Ramaphosa defends reform record

The wide-ranging engagement saw Ramaphosa mount a robust defence of his administration’s economic transformation agenda, even as he candidly acknowledged the ANC’s declining electoral support and plummeting voter turnout.

“If you analyse the 2024 elections, you find that many parties actually lost support, including those that people may think won a lot of support,” he said, noting that the percentage of people who voted had decreased significantly.

He added:

That speaks a lot about what we need to do to reinvigorate the spirit of patriotism, of democracy, of generating upscaling citizen activism.

But the president insisted his government’s reform programme was yielding tangible results, pointing to the recovery of the South African Revenue Service from state capture, the addition of generation capacity to address electricity shortages, and South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force greylist.

READ | Ramaphosa tells media: Hold leaders accountable as SA heads to polls

“Just the removal from FATF has also boosted the fortunes of our investment trajectory, as well as the rating agencies now re-rating our country, making our debt a lot cheaper,” Ramaphosa said.

He revealed that South Africa can now borrow on international bond markets at a lower rate than the US, describing it as a remarkable achievement for “a small country like ours”.

On early childhood development, Ramaphosa said the government would reach almost 2 million children next year – a programme he described as neglected for 32 years.

The president also touted a new investment in the Northern Cape that he said would transform the province, including a planned deep-water port at the Namibian border and declining unemployment from 36% to 28%.

AGOA uncertainty and US sanctions

Ramaphosa prepared South Africans for the possibility of losing access to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), warning that the country would not be the first to be removed from the preferential trade programme.“We now need to deal with the impact that is going to have and alternatives that we will have,” he said.

While the US Congress has decided that South Africa should remain in AGOA, the executive branch still needs to make a final determination. The president acknowledged that removal would be “devastating” given the number of jobs involved.

READ | ‘A fabrication’: Mbeki denies his govt had secret meetings with apartheid generals

On US sanctions imposed on certain ANC leaders, Ramaphosa said: “This is not a decision by the ANC.

This is a decision by South Africa. It is another country that has decided to sanction leaders for reasons that they know best.”

He said the government would continue engaging with the US “with the view of bringing a sense of rationality, sense of proper collaboration and discussion”.

Mayoral candidates and party processes

Addressing the ANC’s decision not to announce mayoral candidates before the local government elections, Ramaphosa defended the party’s “tried and tested” approach of appointing mayors after the polls.

“What we’ve done in the past is to say we will anoint somebody to be the mayor after the elections, and that’s the path that we have chosen,” he said.

However, he encouraged journalists to interview the shortlisted candidates the party had presented to the public.

“There’s just no harm in you as a journalist talking to any one of them, and in a way, it would also be able to give information to our people about the level of preparedness, competency, and all that,” he said.

On questions about the ANC’s national chairperson and issues raised in the Zondo Commission, Ramaphosa said these were matters being discussed within the organisation and declined to discuss individuals publicly.

Systems, processes and hands-on leadership

The president defended his hands-on approach to governance, explaining his tendency to personally check on the implementation of government programmes.

READ | ‘I had carried something heavy for seven weeks’: Mbalula back at work after court collapse

“I often tell my colleagues that it’s the system, process, and people architecture that we need to put in place because that in itself will give us greater assurance of being able to correct mistakes,” he said.

Ramaphosa recounted landing at an Air Force base with weeds on the runway and demanding they be removed before his return.

“That is what we do: just keep working. It’s not that we are bad people; it’s that we’ve got to keep encouraging people to do the right thing,” he said.

He described himself as obsessed with systems and constitutions, revealing that his biographer had questioned him about drafting constitutions for various organisations throughout his life.

“I’m a firm believer in correcting systems, setting systems in place. When there are systems, we are then all able to be assured of how things will work,” he said.

Ramaphosa concluded by acknowledging the ANC’s imperfections while insisting the party was committed to continuous improvement.

“We are not a perfect organisation. Get me somebody that’s perfect. Get me an organisation that’s perfect. We keep striving to do good at what we do; we keep striving to do good by our people.”

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