North-West University (NWU) academic in the Indigenous Language Media in Africa research entity Prof Gilbert Motsaathebe recently presented a seminar titled “Multilingual online responses on the ‘Hollywood-style’ arrest of a defence lawyer in a high-profile case”.
This is following the arrest of defence lawyer Adv Malesela Teffo, the legal representative for four of the five men accused of killing South Africa’s national soccer team captain Senzo Meyiwa. Adv Teffo was arrested inside the court where he had been cross-examining a state witness on 29 April 2022.
Prof Motsaathebe says this arrest is dubbed by the media as a “Hollywood-style” arrest.
“The incident unfolded in full view of journalists covering the high-profile trial. The arrest shocked the public and elicited a wave of mixed reactions given that it came a few minutes after the advocate discredited the state witness and implicated high-profile state officials in what he referred to as the ‘contamination of the murder scene’ in his cross-examination,” he explains.
Using what he refers to as pseudo-virtual ethnography, Prof Motsaathebe’s paper looked at the online users’ comments on the SABC’s YouTube channel on which the trial was live-streamed.
“Most of these comments were in African languages, and therefore it was crucial to study these since most of the mainstream media commentary in the past have focused on the English language. The paper specifically focuses on how readers’ multilingual comments contribute to a broader understanding of the case from multiple perspectives,” says Prof Motsaathebe.
He says the ability for users to access different linguistic modes and converse in the languages that they are comfortable with, enables these speakers to articulate their views robustly outside the confines of the typical dominant language of discourse.
“I was interested to see the picture that emerged from these responses. Five thematic categories emerged in the analysis: concerns about state interference and political meddling, intimidation tactics, disrespect for the decorum of the court, suspicions of a high-level cover-up, and the fear that the wrong people may have been arrested,” adds Prof Motsaathebe.
“These findings are particularly significant for their illumination of how ordinary people perceive the trial beyond the elitist view often prioritised in the mainstream media. Ultimately, the paper sees such expressions as another vital site of African language legitimisation,” he concludes.
About Prof Gilbert Motsaathebe
Prof Gilbert Motsaathebe is a National Research Foundation-rated research professor at the NWU in the Indigenous Language Media in Africa research entity.
Until recently, he was the editor-in-chief of Communicare: Journal of Communication Science in Southern Africa. Previously, he taught at the University of Johannesburg, United Arab Emirates University, and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, among other institutions.
Prof Gilbert Motsaathebe
