(hat tip: Booker Rising ). The South African center-right journalist takes issue with the government using an apartheid-era law to crack down on journalists (who work for the same TV station where Mr. Malala anchors a political program) who interviewed two anonymous criminals who threatened violence and muggings against visitors to the soccer World Cup in June: “The image of blinkered donkeys came to me last week as I listened to Minister of Safety and Security Nathi Mthethwa and police commissioner Bheki Cele defend their decision to subpoena two e.tv journalists to force them to reveal in court, in terms of section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act, the names of the two men they interviewed in a news clip. The background is now familiar: e.tv interviewed two thugs who threatened violence and muggings against visitors to the soccer World Cup in June. Mthethwa and Cele then invoked the notorious, apartheid-era section 205 to force the reporter and the news editor who had handled the story to reveal the names of the thugs.”

He continues his commentary: “So why did these two men remind me of blinkered donkeys? Since their appointment, no two senior government leaders have expended more energy on discarding and trampling on principles than these two. By their utterances and conduct they let us know, on a daily basis, that, because crime is such a massive problem in this country, they are allowed to tear up the rule book and behave like cowboys. The problem is that, one day, their blinkers will come off and only then will they realise that while they might have dealt with crime (which seems highly unlikely) they will also have destroyed the country.

It all started with their exhortation to the police to ’shoot to kill’ criminals. Remember the name ‘Olga Kekana’? Kekana was killed in October when police claimed to have mistaken the car in which she and three friends were travelling for a hijacked vehicle and sprayed it with bullets. The young hairdresser was shot through the head and died. Two other occupants were injured. The police shot without adequate warning and shot to kill. Is this how one fights crime?”

More commentary from Mr. Malala: “The heinous section 205 was used under apartheid against journalists to get information about struggle activists such as Cele. Many of the journalists detained, forced into exile or even killed by the National Party government in the 1980s were victims of this terrible law. On coming to power, the ANC - which knows full well the devastating consequences of this law - should have repealed it. It did not. Now we know why. The tools of the apartheid regime become very handy when you are in power.

Many South Africans have been saying that e.tv should hand over the tapes and co-operate with the authorities. This, they say, is in the national interest. This, they say, echoing Cele and Mthethwa, is ‘what we should all do to fight crime’. Unfortunately, the issue here is not crime. It is much more serious than that. It is about what kind of country we want to live in. If we allow Mthethwa and Cele to succeed with the subpoena, we are giving politicians the right to tell us what is in the national interest. Before you know it, we will be told that journalists who expose government corruption are acting against the national interest and should reveal their sources.”