Dear SA. This is how to build a free society and an accountable government, love Sweden
- Julie Reid
- Feb 6
- 2 min read
A recent trip to Sweden revealed a marvellous attitude to the accessibility of information – the kind of Utopian ideal that would have South Africans shaking their head in admiring disbelief.
Sweden: this small country way up north has made some peculiar appearances in South African headlines recently. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela reportedly handed out what the Mail & Guardian called a ‘Swiss diss’ to minister of agriculture, forestries and fisheries, Tina Joemat-Petterson, when she said that the minister should learn from a Swedish politician who resigned for having inappropriately spent state funds on some Toblerone chocolates. This story also pointed out the irresistibility of a cool sounding headline that rhymes to media folk: the headline, in this case, was incorrect. If the ‘diss’ had been ‘Swiss’, then Madonsela would have been referring to a politician from Switzerland, and not Sweden. Switzerland and Sweden are the same place as much as Africa is a country. But ‘Swedish diss’ just doesn’t have the same ring, does it? Anyway, I digress.
Earlier that week the Sunday Independent reported that Gwede Mantashe inexplicably appeared to be trying to pin the blame for the mayhem in Marikana on a Swede. (That’s what people from Sweden are called. They are ‘Swedes’ and not ‘Swiss’. You follow?). The Swede in question was activist Liv Shange, a Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and Workers and Socialist Party (Wasp) leader. Mantashe’s assertions that Shange had been trying to destabilise the country by stirring up unrest amongst miners was widely met with ridicule, and read as another bizarre attempt to shift responsibility for South Africa’s very real problems, from the ruling party to mythically demonised foreign forces of evil. Sadly, these two almost laughable incidents will be the sum total of what most South African media followers have heard about the country of Sweden of late. That’s a real pity, because this little-known-about country for South Africans, has a lot more to offer.