I see News24 has taken a policy decision to have comments on news articles switched off by default.

They cite reasons such as;

......we wish to be known for the quality of our content rather than for our comments.......

Many commentators insist on pushing the boundaries of free speech available to us in South Africa.

Comments tediously drift towards hate speech at worst and, at best, are often laced with prejudice.

Interesting and considered contributions are drowned out by a cacophony of insults from a minority of users.

This is not the experience we wish users to have in our home.
The full article is here; http://www.news24.com/Columnists/And...hange-20150908

Having seen the comments over the years I can certainly see why they've taken this decision but I also think they've taken the easy way out to some degree at least.