Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has monitored every democratic election in South Africa. This year we are doing the same, providing daily and weekly reports on media coverage of election news, as well as MMA’s Election Media Ratings.

Top elections stories for Friday 13 March are:

1. Coverage for the day was quite fragmented, but all newspapers prominently covered the Constitutional Court ruling that registered South African voters could vote no matter where they are.
• Beeld, p. 2 (3 stories);
• Business day, p. 3 (2 stories);
• E-tv, item 2;
• Sowetan, p.4;
• The Citizen, p.3, and an editorial on p. 10;
• The Star, p. 1, 5; and,
• The Times, p. 4 (2 stories);
The Star and Beeld each covered the expat vote story from the point of view of people who will benefit from it.  This is in contrast to much of the coverage that concentrated on politicians and party responses rather than voters.  It is not yet clear how many people will be in a position to vote.

2. The DA complaint about the costs of Jacob Zuma’s personal security was covered with attention being drawn to tax payers’ money being used.
• SABC 3, item 5;
• The Citizen, p. 8;
• The Star, p. 1;
• The Times, p. 6;

The Daily Sun carried a front page story about the abusive use of government food parcels by the ANC and complaints made against them by the ID and IFP.  Apparently, there is also an accusation against the IFP for sending people to the Department of Social Development for food vouchers to which they are not entitled.

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For more information please contact Sandra Roberts on 084 9000 344 or 011 788 1278 or William Bird on 082 887 1370.

The Daily Reports are made possible by the Open Society Foundation.

Media Monitoring Africa is acting as impartial observer of the SABC’s elections coverage.

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The following media are reviewed in the compilation of this report: Beeld, Daily Sun, e-tv primetime news, SABC 3 primetime news, Sowetan, The Citizen, The Star, and The Times.