Brits' press venom riles South Africans

JOHANNESBURG - Why do they hate us?

The question dominated South African headlines and talkback radio last week after British press coverage of President Jacob Zuma's state visit and the imminent football World Cup.

Leading the charge was journalist Stephen Robinson, whose critique of South Africa's Zulu leader in the Daily Mail bore the headline: "Jacob Zuma is a sex-obsessed bigot with four wives and 35 children. So why is Britain fawning over this vile buffoon?"

Robinson was not alone in interrogating Zuma's polygamous lifestyle and recent love child, past brushes with corruption charges and the rest of what the Guardian delicately described as a "colourful CV".

South Africans are already sensitive about the way their country is being portrayed in Britain as it prepares to host the World Cup in June.

When the Sun and several other British papers recently criticised the state of England's training camp in Rustenburg, the Times of South Africa ran a headline: "English hacks raining on World Cup parade again".

Radio talk shows have speculated on the reasons for what they see as relentlessly negative coverage bordering on "Afro-pessimism". The African National Congress youth wing has called it racism.

- OBSERVER