ABSTRACT
It will be quite a different South Africa that moves towards the fourth democratic elections in 2009 than the body politic and media system that became part of the first democratic elections in 1994. Hope and uncertainty characterized the first elections. Democratic political and media discourse was in its infancy, still struggling with the legacy of apartheid. The second and third democracy showed a country finding its feet on the arduous road to democratic elections and a media system that supports the process. With the fourth general election looming in 2009, the mood has changed to find the country embroiled in boisterous and vociferous political discourse. However, as is the case in other democracies, the mood has changed. No longer was it a case of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s “rainbow nation,” but a nation finding itself on a razor-sharp edge of political in-fighting, scandals, and mistrust between government and the media.
