The aim of this chapter is to develop, through an analysis of the conflict in 2007 between the Sunday Times and the then minister of health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a new theoretical perspective on the relationships between three different kinds of subjects and subjections. The discussion is about the loyal subject (Tshabalala-Msimang); the questioning subject (the deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge) who was fired for not toeing the ideological line; and the Sunday Times newspaper.

‘Subjectivisation’ or subjection refers to the ANC-led government's attempt to force the Sunday Times to its unitary view. This case study will show how the relationships between government and media over the two subjects unfolded during 2007; how the unfolding events highlight the way ideology works in trying to create unity in a divided society; how there is an excess attached to the media through its label ‘enemy of the people’, lacking in ubuntu;2 and finally how the attempted subjection of the Sunday Times failed, signalling a hopeful moment for democracy. Reflecting on the Žižek quote above, the case study also discusses how the media and the government dealt with their differences over the ‘truth’ in two stories in the Sunday Times: ‘Manto's hospital booze binge’ (12 August 2007) and ‘Manto: A drunk and a thief ‘ (19 August 2007). The chapter explores how, on the one hand, ubuntu was used by the ANC to try and rein in journalists and, on the other, how journalists believed that they were engaged in a passionate fight for the truth, holding those in power to account for their behaviour and actions, while serving their profession and democracy. However, one must not forget that newspapers like sexy or juicy stories too, and this certainly was one.

While there was resistance to the ideological interpellation, or labelling, of Sunday Times journalists as ‘enemies of the people’, there was also ambivalence: half turns were made towards the interpellating voices. I have developed the concept ‘half turn’ from Butler's conceptualisation of the reflexive turn, which she developed from Althusser's concept of ‘the turn’ towards the interpellating voice of power (1997: 107-130).