Deputy Speaker, we are dismayed and concerned at the unashamed attack on the freedom of the press and the free access to information by the DA. [Laughter.] Three months ago the DA blacklisted Sowetan parliamentary correspondent Anna Majavu for simply doing her job, which is to cover news freely, fairly and without fear or favour. [Interjections.]
Ms Majavu was banned from all media activities of the DA and further removed from the party's media list after she exposed the involvement of one of the party's councillors, Mr Pieter van Dalen, in the shooting of defenceless black children while they were playing in Khayelitsha. [Interjections.] In what could be regarded as a pat on the back for a job well done, the party later promoted him to the position of member of this House.
The party's decision to blacklist Ms Majavu for simply doing her job, is a brazen attempt to intimidate and muzzle journalists who do not write sweetheart stories about the DA and its government. It is a known practice of the DA that journalists who do not write favourably about the party are threatened and intimidated. Editors and journalists have in the past written about how Zille and her lieutenants made threatening calls to journalists who refused to kowtow to their orders.
We condemn in the strongest terms the DA's attempt to dictate to the media how it should conduct its business. This backward tendency, which was prevalent during the apartheid era, has no place in our democracy. We once again call on the party to immediately cease this intimidation and apologise to the Sowetan and its journalists. I thank you. [Applause.]