On the day of her death, radical Black Land First (BLF) activists picketed the Johannesburg home of Peter Bruce – Tiso Blackstar publishing group’s editor-atlarge and assaulted Business Day editor Tim Cohen and a former Business Day journalist Karima Brown who had visited the house to ensure Bruce had suffered no harm. On July 17, BLF activists assaulted journalist Micah Reddy, a member of the amaBhungane1 Centre for Investigative Journalism, and 10 days later threatened him again at another media event which BLF disrupted. Meanwhile, Sanef had obtained an interdict against BLF and its founder, Andile Mngxitama, at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, requiring them to stop harassing, intimidating, assaulting and threatening eleven senior journalists, editors and commentators who had been targeted for their reporting on state capture. BLF later threatened more editors and journalists with similar protests at their homes, despite having complied with the court order by issuing a statement on 11 July that the group did not condone its members intimidating, assaulting and limiting peoples’ freedom and carrying out other conduct about which there had been complaints. On 11 February 2017, Orlando Pirates soccer fans, angry at the 6-0 winning streak by their Sundowns opponents at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, rioted and vandalised the stadium, injuring scores of people, including two photographers. The rioters invaded the pitch, tampered with TV cables and interrupted the live broadcast of the match. The Daily Sun’s Themba Makofane was hit on the foot with a blunt object as he took photographs of fans ripping plastic stadium 1 AmaBhungane is isiZulu for ‘dung beetles’. 94 So This is Democracy? 2017 seats from the stands which they then hurled onto the field. Fans snatched his wallet with R400 (approx. USD 33) and a spare camera from his bag but returned them when he pleaded with them. BackpagePix2’s Sydney Mahlangu was struck by a metal object the fans had ripped from the advertising billboards surrounding the field. His laptop, which he used to download, edit and transmit images from the stadium, was stolen. Makofane said that “the situation was so scary, the police started running for cover like the rest of us.” South Africa’s political scene underwent a dramatic change in February 2018 with the resignation of President Jacob Zuma in response to calls for him to step down from ANC, Opposition members and the public, followed by the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as the new President. 2 A media syndication agency based in South Africa