Educated people want to stay and raise children and indigenous plants. Independent courts take constitutional promises seriously. The government is therefore hoping to stave off frank criticism by means of political correctness. I suspect that in America the problem is more than just a good subject for internet jokes, but I am certain that in South Africa political correctness is a starving monster. T he open predations on freedom of speech in South African are not my most insomniac concern.
Officials regularly insult and threaten journalists for reporting on corruption.
The Minister of Safety and Security is withholding crime statistics, and various departments are working in apparent coordination on plans to ban reporters from government property and from conversations with government employees unless by written ministerial consent. Now that the bravest journalists are exploring a network of multimillion-dollar bribes woven tightly around the president, they get anonymous death threats. Disturbing as all of this is, it may not be the worst. You can at least easily see what is happening. The insidious and so far neglected problem is that journalists accept more and more the limits subtly but authoritatively set for inquiry and criticism.