South Africa 2016 violations & victories January 8 Censored The ANC announced that it had not invited senior freelance politics reporter Carien du Plessis to the party’s 104th birthday celebration in Rustenburg because she had tweeted that among the guests would be “pantypreneurs” and “tenderpreneurs”. The ruling party’s spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, who announced the ban, responded, “The ANC takes offence to these kind of derogatory remarks against women, we will take up this matter with yourself and employer.” She apologised and though SANEF described the “unfortunate and offensive tweet” as “beyond defensible commentary”, it urged the party to rise above such regrettable utterances and allow even those who might have made offensive remarks to cover the party’s anniversary celebrations. The ANC refused to rescind the ban. February 22 Censored Following a protest by the SA National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) against what it con-strued as “dangerous remarks” by Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema, threatening journalists employed by TV station ANN7 and The New Age newspaper, and barring them from EFF functions, a Sanef delegation met with the EFF leadership. SANEF said it is unacceptable and a violation of the constitution for any political party to intimidate journalists and to publicly state that they cannot guarantee their safety. The EFF claimed the two news operations were owned by the wealthy Gupta family and were not media because they were “nothing more than instruments of propa-ganda for the ruling party and funded by allegedly corrupt returns from government”. The party was not prepared to reconsider its decision. SANEF said the EFF was entitled to its views about media owners, but should allow journalists to conduct their work without fear. The meeting ended without agreement but with an understanding that further meetings may be held in future. February 24 Threatened The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) asked the Independent Elec-toral Commission (IEC) and political parties to include fair treatment of the media in the declarations and pledges that political parties sign during elections. SANEF also asked political parties to protect journalists from political harassment and intimidation and start adhering to the electoral code of conduct even before the election date is promulgated as campaigns were already under way and journalists had experienced problems in some areas. SANEF condemned instances where bribes, disguised as “cool drink money” or “transport money”, were offered to journalists in the past to cover the events of certain political parties. April 4 Assaulted SANEF requested an urgent meeting with senior police officers to place before them complaints about the conduct of the police during several incidents in which journalists were attacked while on assignment. SANEF alleged