{
  "id": 14598660,
  "title": "When notoriety becomes celebrity",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/when-notoriety-becomes-celebrity",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-15T03:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Citizen",
    "slug": "the-citizen",
    "url": "https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/when-notoriety-becomes-celebrity/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Serge Cabonge's name appearing in the case against former Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya highlights how South Africa allows nearly anyone to gain relevance, even when their involvement is unnecessary. We know little about many of these individuals, have questions about their actions, yet their names become prominent in serious proceedings, dominating conversations and headlines. Why have we allowed the media to treat obscurity as a pathway to notoriety? At what point did public interest justify elevating questionable characters to household names? Who are Cabonge, Bishop Maumela, and Stuart James Scharnick, and why are they so eager to be seen and heard? We've seen influencers and socialites involved in allegations of corruption, murder, and infiltration of our security sector. The institutions meant to protect us have become a playground for the powerful, where proximity to authority offers relevance and protection. Those who should be under scrutiny are instead given public fascination, their names circulating before the full extent of their alleged involvement is known. We've become so used to this spectacle that we rarely question what this normalization means for our democracy. When those entrusted with our safety are surrounded by questionable characters, the threat extends beyond individual reputations, affecting the integrity of the institutions themselves. Our first line of defense cannot become a social club for the connected and influential. At what cost do we continue to conflate notoriety with importance and access with legitimacy? Why do we find fascination in being seen with those who appear cool? Why have professionals, whose alleged illegalities may have gone unnoticed for years, become comfortable associating with characters desperate to be in the spotlight? The media must remember that visibility breeds acceptance. Instead of normalizing questionable behavior, we should strive to preserve the sanity, values, and moral fabric of our society.",
  "summary": "Why have we allowed, or perhaps taught, the media to believe that we are willing consumers of obscurity transformed into notoriety?",
  "key_points": [
    "Serge Cabonge involved in Shadrack Sibiya case, little known",
    "Cabonge, Maumela, Scharnick prominent despite questionable actions",
    "Media normalization of notoriety threatens democracy"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}