Blackman Ngoro's eye on community media

By Nadia Samie
11 October 2006

Former Cape Town Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo’s controversial axed media advisor, Blackman Ngoro, is back in the headlines. Ngoro, who was sacked from the mayor’s office in August 2005 for racist remarks about coloured people made on his personal website, is now launching a new community media group called Uhuru.

Ngoro, who edits an Afro Asian news website, has formed a partnership with who he calls seasoned community entrepreneurs, and The Eye Level, a subsidiary of Chaza Strategic Management.

Left: Blackman Ngoro

Uhuru plans to enter the community newspaper, community television and community radio sector. The group says that at present, there is a lack of focus on the suffering of rural people who don’t have access to basic services.

In a media statement — which says that the group will launch early in 2007 — Ngoro blames the Democratic Alliance’s electioneering politics for the racial rift in Cape Town at the time of the 2006 local government election. Ngoro fails to make mention of the article he wrote on his website, where he claimed that black Africans are “culturally superior” to coloureds’.

An inquiry found that Ngoro should be charged with misconduct, as he had insulted coloured people and increased racial tension in the province.