The South African Civil Society Information Service

Alide Dasnois: The South African Economy Is Not on the Right Growth Path

12 Nov 2010

Alide Dasnois, Editor of the Cape Times, said that the South African economy was not on the right growth path when she spoke at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office. She also highlighted the problem of ideology that does sometimes creep into reporting, despite editors' best efforts to clean it out.

Dasnois talked about the importance of encouraging debate in newspapers. To this end, the Cape Times launched a series called "The Next Economy" in late 2009, which was based on two premises. Firstly, that the financial crisis was nothing new and secondly, that the crisis provides an opportunity to build something better.

The roundtable discussion, which examined the media's perspective of the South African economy, put the following questions to editors: Is the economy on the right growth path? What are the prospects for making it more inclusive? How does the media report on the economy? Does the media have a vision for South Africa's economic development?

Other media speakers at the event included, Mondli Makhanya (Editor in Chief, Avusa Media/Chairperson, SANEF), Nic Dawes (Editor in Chief of the Mail & Guardian) and Reg Rumney (Head of the Centre for Economics Journalism in Africa, Rhodes University).

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You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/304.19.