Special Hearings — Media Hearings — UNKNOWN

MARY BURTON: Thank you, Chairperson.  Ms Mathiane, I would like to move away from your very gender specific submission and ask both you and Mr Cruywagen. We have been looking at ways in which our print media might have served us better in the past.  I would like to ask whether you want to comment in terms of the kind of reporting, the sort of stories that you were able to report on, from your own knowledge, and which were either spiked or not given adequate attention.	When Mr Cruywagen spoke at the hearing in Cape Town, together with photographer, Willie de Klerk, they gave us very clear indications of the way in which journalists who were known in that community and were trusted and were willing to go out and get the stories, very often didn't see those stories appear in print, or when they did, they were not always acknowledged for them.  So, I would just like your responses to some of those problems and ways in which the newspapers might have served the public better.

DENNIS CRUYWAGEN: I think one has to see the editors at the time as products of their time and products of a particular political situation.  They were perhaps not as critical as one would have wanted them to be, and they were upholding a system in which they believed that what the other side was doing was wrong as far as they were concerned.  That is how I prefer to look at it. I think in itself the fact that we are sitting here today, and looking what had happened in the past, is a victory for what we believed in. I don't think a lot of these editors thought at the time - neither did we for that matter - that we would sit here and reflect on the past.	I think what we have to ensure now, is my colleague has said we should train black journalists the way we trained white journalists. I don't want that.  Just as we have to overall the education system, we have to train journalists for a new South Africa. Not train, use the old training methods to produce journalists who are not suited for the new South Africa.  And that is the challenge.  The challenge is to have critical journalists, and journalists who do not hobnob with the Government.  When the ANC and other liberation movements were unbanned, leaders like Archbishop Tutu said I am taking a back seat, the politicians are free.  The challenge is for journalists to take a back seat and say now let's do our job and let the politicians get on with running the country and let us be critical. That is what we should do.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mary. While it remains for me to thank both of you, for having come, and for having given us a view of what you consider can still be done. In particular, I would like to thank Nomavenda. Both of us share a common hatred, which is why I corrected myself very quickly, and that is around the pronunciation of names.  I have had occasion to have altercations with her when she called me Dumisani, instead of saying Dumisa.  But I have  been looking at some of the cases that we are dealing with in the stormy years.  Especially in the Eastern Cape. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the articles that Nomavenda used to write about; violations of human rights in the Eastern Cape; in Xala rural areas of Xala where Bathadondo was killed and there Nomavenda was writing about stories in that part of the area.  So you have come a really long way and it therefore, is something for me in particular, that pains me to hear you talk about lack of advancement opportunities in the media world, and you relate that to the only thing that it can be, that has held you back, and that is because you are female.  Because it cannot be lack of experience. It certainly cannot be lack of courage, because not only were those stories shunned by most reporters that I know of, but for black and female reporters to have been keen to write stories that covered the killing of Bathadondo by Vlakplaas operators, in the way in which you did and many others, is a mark of your commitment to your calling.  One would only hope that our society is going to be very sensitive to this gender-specific issues, and that we should treat them very, very seriously.  Thank you for having come.	Mr Cruywagen, I indicated that we are in the fortunate position in the Commission to have heard you, especially in the context of the incidents in the Western Cape, but we thank you for accompanying your sister.  Not that she needed that sort of accompaniment.  (Laughter).  But we think that you were prepared to sit with her on the session.

DENNIS CRUYWAGEN: It was a pleasure.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank  you then.

NOMAVENDA MATHIANE: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: We will now proceed, almost immediately, and I hope he is here, and call Mr Raymond Louw.  If he is not here, maybe we proceed to call Mr Arri de Beer, and if neither of them are here - oh, Arri is here, oh.  Or Raymond is here, please Ray.  I will defer to age - your age.   Before you even sit down, maybe I want to ask you to stand up so that Mary can administer the oath to you.
INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE

RAYMOND LOUW: (Duly sworn, states).

MARY BURTON: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Well, the Commission also has a mandateto present as complete a picture as possible, but we know it is not good.  So I hope you will give us as whole a truth as is possible for you to do so.	Let me start by saying that maybe you have a form in which you would like to make your presentation in, in which event maybe you should start right-away, given that you are also conscious of the constraints of time that we have, and that within that period we will possibly have time for the panel to put some questions to you. If you can therefore, proceed.