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Author's Preface
'If
words were invented to conceal thought, newspapers
are a
great
improvement on a bad invention.' …H D Thoreau
(1817-62)
It is a
vaguely-known fact that quotations used as headings are a sign of
pretentiousness and potential plagiarism. It also pisses me off when people put
prefaces on pieces which ought to be self-explanatory, or when authors bestow
dubious dedications as if they were queens handing out knighthoods.
However. . . explanations, unfortunately, seem urgently required here - and who can
resist the temptation to patronise one's colleagues? There is no alternative,
therefore, but to press on with the following:
This book
is for all those editors, journalists and foreign correspondents who failed to
be jailed, who were not barred from, or banned in South Africa, not
prosecuted - not even
put on the phone-tap list.
It must have been a
tough and lonely experience, fellas. Yet, to quote Walt Kelly's Pogo the Possum, 'you see-ed your
duty, and you do-ed it'
The
purpose, the need and the form of this work require some lengthy explanations,
which are not fully in my grasp, but which can be summed up as follows: The book is not amusing. Some light stuff
merely illuminates the darkness of death, prison and
prejudice. It is not easy to be funny about such subjects.
These are not memoirs. Memoirs are written by
people whose memories are already fading. (I
forget who said that.)
It is not
a study of apartheid. There were, at last count, more than 1600 registered
titles on that subject- more English-language books on apartheid than on The
Third Reich, perhaps, or on the British Empire. In this work apartheid is
merely the frame-work in which to examine the internal workings of the press,
authoritarianism, censorship, mayhem, mob violence, mysteries, assassinations,
murders and the other everyday things in our divided society.
It is not
a balanced book. The story is told as I and many of my colleagues see it, and
though there is some good writing from editors of various persuasions, my
personal prejudices and egocentric opinions are rampant. I have not culled the
records of every opposition paper. Instead I have used almost exclusively the
files, and not inconsiderable resources, of the Johannesburg Star which
I had the misfortune to edit in the darkest days. (The Star is used for
convenience, sometimes described as laziness, rather than preference). The book
does not attempt to provide both sides of any issue, as a good newspaper should
do. I have not set out the case for the government or its Department of
Information, for instance. Or for the South African Police who, in the time of
transition, were being murdered at the rate of four a week.
It is not a complete work.
There is no adequate coverage of the Afrikaans press, or the' Alternative' press,
and nothing about the electronic media in South Africa. There is no
comprehensive over-view of the black struggle to gain freedom in this land.
Those are
some of the things this book is not about. If you want to know what's in it, or
what it is trying to achieve, you're going to have to read it.
Had it not
been for the combined efforts of a number of senior newspeople this book need
not have happened. 'Some-one ought to record something about the role of the
English-language press in the apartheid era. You were reporting the
scene for all those 43 years - you do it,' they said. 'Why not produce a brief
monograph?' I thought they said monogram, which I knew was short enough to
embroider on your shirtfront pocket, or write on your tooth-brush. So I agreed.
They conned me, the cunning bastards.
A curse on
them.
Thanks are
due to dozens of editors and journalists who reluctantly came to my assistance.
If this work is judged to have the smallest merit, they will wish to claim the
credit. If, however - as they
fully expect - the book is judged to be boring and
irritating, they would prefer to remain anonymous. Therefore the names of most
of those people who made this book possible are recorded at the end, so that
they will be known only to those readers who are prepared to read that far.
(Well go on, cheat if you must).
It is not
possible to shield the names of those public figures and writers and editors
and reporters whom I pestered into composing direct contributions. Their
thoughts, and the way they helped fill the book, bring heartfelt gratitude. The
list of writers appears on the next page.
Finally
there is no way I can avoid acknowledging the contribution of Jo-Anne Richards,
freelance writer and former news reporter who started as a researcher, became a
compiler and ended up as a writer and an editor of this book. I would like to
blame Richards for all my mistakes.
HWT
Weskoppies 1993
Contributors
Guest
Writers
Anthony Lewis, New York
Times columnist and commentato
Nelson Mandela, President of
the African National Congress
Lord McGregor of Durris,
chairman, World Assoc of Press Councils, and UK Press Complaints Commission.
Helen Suzman, MP and
press-freedom-fighter.
Newspaper Editors
Deon du Plessis, Editor, The Pretoria
News
Michael Green, former Editor-in-Chief,
The Daily News, Durban
Aggrey Klaaste, Editor, The
Sowetan
Joe Latakgomo, former Editor,
The Transvaal Post, Sen. Assistant Editor, The Star
Koos Viviers, Editor, Cape
Times, former Editor, Eastern Province Herald
Journalists
Shaun Johnson, political
editor, The Star, formerly Weekly Mail
Patrick Laurence, The Star,
and the Economist, London, formerly Rand Daily Mail
Peter
Mann, former News Editor, The Star, and political corrrespondent of Sunday
Tribune
Quraysh Patel, News Editor, The
Star, formerly Daily News, Durban
Jo-Anne Richards, formerly of Evening
Post, Cape Times, Sunday Express and The Star
Peter Wellman, The Star, formerly
Rand Daily Mail
Chris van Gass, News Editor, Pretoria
News, formerly The Star
Gary van Staden, formerly of The
Star and SA Institute of Foreign Affairs
Cartoonists
David (Andy) Anderson, Pretoria
News, The Star, now Canadian freelance
Abe Berry and Dov Fedler, The
Star
Tony Grogan, Cape Times
John Jackson, The Argus
Jock Leyden, The Daily News
Mynderd Vosloo, The Argus
Words and works of many other past and present newspaper editors - at least 28 of them - appear in this book. The editors range
from Morris Broughton of The Argus
to Zwelakhe Sisulu of New Nation. From Laurence Gandar, Raymond
Louw and Allister Sparks of the Rand Daily Mail to Tertius Myburgh and Ken
Owen of Sunday Times and Business Day. From Anton Harber of the Weekly
Mail to Willem de Klerk of Rapport. From H F Verwoerd, editor of Die
Transvaler, to Donald Woods of the Daily Dispatch and Jon Qwelane,
editor of Tribute.
The full list can be found in the index.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 4
CONTRIBUTORS 6
CHAPTER ONE Turning on a tickey 9
CHAPTER TWO Who holds the torch 25
CHAPTER THREE Killing the vibes 47
CHAPTER FOUR Cry treason 65
CHAPTER FIVE A
time of purity 83
CHAPTER SIX Getting the picture 103
CHAPTERSEVEN White horses and hippos 119
CHAPTER EIGHT A slight case of arrest 139
CHAPTER NINE Prison, death and the end of the World 157
CHAPTER TEN Sandbagged 173
CHAPTER ELEVEN Dirty tricks 201
CHAPTER TWELVE The unhappy crocodile 219
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The public 'private eye' 235
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Unmasking the killers 247
CHAPTER FIFTEEN You are forbidden to read this 263
CHAPTER SIXTEEN 'I've been two-oh-fived' 279
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Eastern capers 295
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN No charge but not free 309
CHAPTER NINETEEN The last lap 325
CHAPTER TWENTY People power 345
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE Who owns the newspapers? 361
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO The dilemma of a free press 389
REFLECTIONS
1 South Africa: The Past HELEN SUZMAN 408
2 South Africa: The Future NELSON MANDELA 410
3 America: Land of the Free Press? ANTHONY LEWIS 412
4 The World: Privacy versus Public Interest LORD MCGREGOR OF
DURRIS 415 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 420
INDEX 421
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