An Acumen Media Report 3rd July 2020 (Seven Days)
#Mkhize warned us the peak was here as we hit the 200k infection mark and Gauteng becomes the epicentre of the virus. He called for unity during the #CovidStorm however we are probably more divided now than we were in the last elections. It didn’t help that GDOH’s #Masuku said that we have #1milliongraves, well actually R1.5m graves ready for the fall out. I had to read that again, 1.5m? Why? In the whole world there have been 600k fatalities, yet we are expecting three times that in SA. Don’t worry they got it wrong, we can have 1.5m graves if we need them apparently, can we also have land, food, water and electricity please? #MassGraves
Big names made news media this week as many became infected and we started to recognise the fatalities, MEC #GordanKegakilwe, Mayor #HenryJansen, ANC spokesperson #RicardoMthembu all died of #Covid19. Paul Mashatile’s wife and mom died in the same week and if that wasn’t horrific enough, our hearts broke with the news of veteran actress #MaryTwala’s death. Condolences poured out for the loss of such a talented woman and for #Somizi as he learns to live without his mother. NW Premier, #JobMokgoro and #AlanWinde test positive along with many journalists I know as they put their lives at risk to keep us informed. Get well soon #AshrafGarda and #JamaineKrige
While I was devastated by the names that continue to pile up, I was confronted with this, #WhyCloverBlue. If you didn’t know and you should because it’s one of the biggest conversations this week, Clover have changed their white milk bottles to blue. Why blue? No one knows. This was coupled with an extremely poorly executed ad featuring an adult man painted head to toe in dark blue poking fun at some of the speculation from social media about the change in bottle colour. I don’t know why this campaign bothered me so much. Was #BlueFace too close to #BlackFace, was #MilkShouldBeWhite too much for my constant racism radar? I wasn’t alone there were many theories out there including, of course the Smurfs, (that irritated me more), some called Clover Israeli sympathisers over the #WestBank, others said it was so off putting that they would never buy it, some, and only some, noticed the price increase of R3.50 for this state of confusion. It was then that I understood why I was so irritated, Clover have done to me what lockdown did to me, forced me to buy blue bottles, didn’t give any explanation, and then ignored me when I raised valid questions, like how is this going to impact on recycling? Clover was my mini Lockdown. I’m sorry Clover, from a media perspective, you knocked it out the park, your engagement is sky-high and everyone is talking about it so I suppose as a media analyst I have to accolade you, but I’m scarred and I think I need therapy.
Back to reality, children were raped, one a 2yrs old in a hospital ward another primary school child on her way to pick up her essential mask to attend school and the world went on because the authorities said #JusticeMustTakeItsCourse. What is that all about anyway, #JusticeMustTakeItsCourse WHEN? The question is WHEN? Look around. I am a huge fan of the #ZondoCommission but at a ticket of R700m for my soap opera without an arrest because #JusticeMustTakeItsCourse, I’m beginning to doubt this phrase, the actual question is #WHENWillJusticeTakeItsCourse? And where is my President? There were rumours of a #CabinetReshuffle and then the #DA said there was a grand plan for the #NCC to be the new government. The level of looting is making itself apparent in the 500Bn relief funding as Lindiwe Zulu blames cheats for R350 grant delay? Which “cheats” exactly? Claims of corruption in 20bn relief packages for municipalities. SASSA & Quintax collusion on tender fined 250k, I wonder what the tender was worth? #PhilipTruter cried in court and basically said he would sing like a canary on the #VBSScandal, I hope he’s being kept safe, we must wait for the gory details because #JusticeMustTakeItsCourse. Mboweni calls looters to book calling them Tsotsis, but WHEN? #WhenWillJusticeTakeItsCourse? Apparently 270k arrests were made for breaking #LockDownRegulations, so the answer is justice will take its course WHEN it suits others. Seems “justice” was pretty quick to fine us with misdemeanours but not so quick to deal with our other small issues like rape and corruption?
The #2020academicYear, parents and pupils call for a rerun, the schools are still a hot mess and I wonder what is being done about sanitization in the form of toilets let alone santizers. But Min. Blade Nzimande says we are on course. A little further north, Kenya writes off the school year and tells its children to stay home.
Truck drivers across the country are striking citing that too many foreigners are employed in the industry, in fact foreigners far outweigh South Africans, that’s the claim anyway. This gave birth to the #SouthAfricansAreLazy to which #Mashaba found his soapbox and stood on it shouting at no one at all. We can’t afford a #Truckstrike, we can much less afford #Xenophobia.
The missing hiker’s body was recovered from #TableMountain with 300 volunteers and a three-day search and rescue. A major #ColdFront hits us this weekend as South African’s have less than they did and we are less equipped with a failing electricity network and CoVid unfriendly environments. Is that why they made #CloverBlue? Cause it’s cold and we’re sad?
I have to grieve at this story (for my industry), for about ten years we have been shouting that #PrintisDead, where to be fair print media was alive and well, in fact for newspapers and community papers were far from dead. The retrenchments at #Media24 this week, 660 positions closed out of less than 3000 employees it’s not just print sounded the death knell – but it’s not just print, Primedia are on the verge of job cuts, Game cut 1800 jobs. But I’m sad to see the death of print in my lifetime, I have always coveted the pictures of spider presses and the assembly lines for distribution of the print media, let alone the tight deadlines and the beauty of the feel of ink on your hands when you work with newspapers and magazines. I had storerooms filled with them in my time of media monitoring and have collected some absolute treasures in my life. I suppose like everything we have to step forward and embrace change, but due to Covid, that just makes me blue… not #CloverBlue. #BlackCoffee owes SARS 40m, #MoegoengMoegoeng will not apologise and still doesn’t get the fact that he has offended Christians, the mind boggles.
Interprovincial travel open for taxis at 70% capacity and city taxis are urged to “open their windows” in the coldest weekend this year.
Across the waters, we have worked out that the virus is airborne and not to worry about surfaces so much but breathing might be a problem. Does anyone know what the hell is going on? Anyone at all, we have all the best minds in the world working on this and we are absolutely clueless, aren’t we? Yeah now I feel blue, #CloverBlue
#EnnioMorricone died, the #BubonicPlague makes an appearance in China, a rare brain-eating amoeba found in Florida, Twitter actually tweeted, they said we could have a edit button if we all wore masks, they such jokers. Trump didn’t know that the Christ the Redeemer statue is in Brazil and is made of stone, no colour whatsoever and that Brazilians are not considered white and if they had to add colour to the statue of Jesus (pbuh) he would be brown. He also withdrew from WHO. All that was trumped by #Kanye is running for President (he took off the MAGA cap), no this is not a set up Black Americans, not at all.
ISIS made a reappearance, haven’t they been quiet? Feel like I haven’t heard about them in years, well they’re in Mozambique now warning South Africans to steer clear of their “conflict”, ISIS have you looked at SA? Mozambique is not on our radar.
I don’t want to talk about the annexation of the West Bank, #BellaHadid did it for me, one post showing pride in her Palestinian heritage made Instagram mad, is the word #Palestine a bad word in the algorithm, never mind hey the annexation moves forward?
Yip, I got it now #Blue, we all feel blue. Well done Clover for echoing the world’s sentiment.
Here’s Tonya’s Takeout: https://youtu.be/SGjHOKHreMg
