As South Africans we should be both proud and ashamed with the success of Miners Show Down – proud of our local film-makers and ashamed that the Marikana tragedy occurred in the first place.
The hard-hitting film took home Best Documentary at the International Emmy Awards in New York earlier this week, something that the ANC thought warranted a tweet. All good so far, although their wording is what really drew heat on social media. The full statement and that tweet below:
It’s that bit down the bottom about the ‘cast members’ that started people’s engines.Below from TimesLive:
User @TOMolefe said: “The ‘cast’ is either dead or waiting on the State you control to compensate them for their suffering.”
Another user @ShottaZee said: “Unless by ‘cast members’ the ANC is referring to the police who were shooting down miners. It makes sense to congratulate them.”
Yet another user @thando_mgqo tweeted: “And now the ANC congratulates ‘all cast members of the documentary’, and that’s supposed to be who? the deceased?”
Some people said that by referring to “cast members” the ANC showed that they had not watched the documentary.
Others tried to give the ANC the benefit of the doubt and tweeted the ruling party, asking for it to clarify what it meant by “cast members”.
ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told News24 that the “cast members” were in fact in reference to the production team.
It may be just a slip of the tongue but I’d suggest the ANC steer clear of trying to get cosy with the makers of the documentary. Check that trailer below for an idea of how poorly the government handled the situation.
[source:timeslive]
