Letter to the Editor: The Myopic Matisonn?

In a piece titled “Who is Prof Maguvhe? And on whose shoulders does he stand?” on 13 Dec 2016, John Matisonn writes:

"There is something fitting, in the Age of Zuma, about appointing a blind man to chair the one state enterprise for which sight is particularly useful – a television company"

Matisonn’s resume on the Daily Maverick reads:

“John Matisonn began political reporting at the Rand Daily Mail in 1974, and received a prison sentence for refusing to divulge his source in a report about the South African Watergate scandal known as Muldergate. A foreign correspondent in Washington for the Rand Daily Mail and back in Johannesburg for National Public Radio, he has been published in the New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post and The Observer. After four years as a broadcast regulator in the Mandela administration and two as editorial director of the short-lived THISDAY newspaper, he became the United Nations’ Chairperson of the Electoral Media Commission in Afghanistan. He returned from a second tour in Afghanistan to write God, Spies and Lies, Finding South Africa’s future through its past, which has just been published.”

Curious that a seasoned, sophisticated writer and opinion maker would display, under the guise of criticising a government regime, unashamed ignorance and deeply rooted prejudice against people who have a visual impairment. We can but hope that he does not extend this ignorance and prejudice to all people with disability or to all who are different from him.

Through his apparent conviction that one needs to be able to watch TV to do this job, he also demonstrates a shocking lack of any knowledge or appreciation of the nature of corporate governance, the role of the SABC chairperson or the plethora of legislation which needs to be understood and complied with in the exercise of this function. Matisonn assumes that any blind person will not be able to understand or comply with these strategic goals and obligations purely on account of blindness. Yet he himself shows as extremely low a level of understanding or appreciation of these matters as the person he seeks to criticise.

It may be that far too much logic is being read into Matisonn’s comment. Perhaps he just has a hatred for blind people?

Some may consider his statement a joke, wordplay, an ill-considered expression - I disagree. Given his formidable resume, his arrogant belittling and even "othering" of blind people is as disrespectful as it is offensive in its harmful and hurtful stereotyping.

This may be trite but, sighted people too, like blind folk, have varied abilities, insights and skill sets. And, dear John, believe it or not, blind people do have the ability to think.

That it was allowed to slip into the respected Daily Maverick with impunity is even more astounding. Perhaps Daily Maverick itself should be examining their own prejudices and their own stance as there can be no excuse for allowing these outrageous attitudes and prejudices to continue on their pages.

This is not a mere intellectual diatribe. As a blind person I am, like many other blind people I know, deeply upset and offended. DM

Photo: Judge Zak Jacoob (Netwerk24)