Special Hearings — Media Hearings — UNKNOWN

MS MKHIZE: Thank you. Are you alright?  Are you okay?  I know it must be difficult for you to revisit the past but I suppose it will be part of a route to your own healing to once more reflect on what you stood for and what you believe with an aim of assisting us as a Commission to have a deeper understanding of what exactly happened.  Maybe if you can just tell us a little bit as to what was your primary agenda as a Union of Black Journalists?

MS MAYET: Well as I say it was basically for us to be united to improve ourselves as journalists and to articulate the aspirations of people who were oppressed at the time.

MS MKHIZE: Yesterday we heard a lot about how difficult it was for a journalist to separate themselves from the government of the day. As a Union of Black Journalists can you reflect on what exactly happened?  I mean it's like it was a war zone of some kind in a newsroom with other people finding it difficult to disassociate themselves with the establishment and you as a Union of Black Journalists wanting South African media to give a different perspective. So how did you cope?

MS MAYET: Well as far as I'm concerned, I myself and I think most of the bunch of people that I worked with on UBJ concentrated on what we had to do, and I don't think we bothered too much about extraneous things. Regarding the reporting side of things, I can remember Tommy Mzwai at the UBJ seminar saying once there are always two sides to a story but for the journalist only one, the truth, and that is what we did.  I won't say tried to do. We did, which is why we got into trouble with the system at the time.

MS MKHIZE: Also for us to get a deeper understanding of your history, the mere fact that you decided to form a union as black journalists, one will assume that you saw the main media establishment as predominantly white, and one will assume that you didn't see it as a legitimate structure to take issues.

MS MAYET: Sorry I'mnot...(intervention)

MS MKHIZE: My question is really, when you formed yourself as a black journalist, what was the problem with the main establishment, the media establishment so to say?

MS MAYET: I don't think, I may be wrong, but I don't think we had any problem with the rest of the media establishments, I think forming the Union of Black Journalists at the time was a necessity and it was quite in line with everything else that was happening, I mean everything was being pigeonholed into neat little compartments, so we formed out own little union and got on with it.

MS MKHIZE: Besides your, I mean I saw in your statement that you had a publication, The Voice.

MS MAYET: Yes.

MS MKHIZE: How much support did you get from your colleagues as contributors to The Voice?

MS MAYET: Quite a lot I would say.  I mean Phil Ntimkhulu was a columnist on The Voice.  Mike Norton was the chief sub, Motobi Motwlatsi had a column and all of us at various stages wrote whatever articles, you know.

MS MKHIZE: Where was it located in relation to other publishing houses, The Voice?  Did you have the support of other publishing houses?

MS MAYET: It's difficult to classify The Voice.  It was established through the churches and I suppose it had its own niche, but it was a newspaper.  It was a black newspaper so I presume it would have also been in competition with other newspapers.

MS MKHIZE: I saw in some of these articles that you were charged although ultimately won the case, where it says Voice Staffers won the case, did you get support from other colleagues besides your own membership?

MS MAYET: Ja, basically I think there were a lot of people behind us, not only members of UBJ but..

MS MKHIZE: Okay looking back now, you mention here that you worked with people like Zwelake Sisulu whom I suppose is the one who is the head of this organisation, how easy is it for people like yourselves, who worked very hard in making sure that the truth is told to the public today to adopt the same position and not to form, to collude blindly with like the government of the day. I'm saying this because you are coming from that culture, you were not content with what was happening in the past, but today you are in a similar position where ultimately people who shared the same aspirations in the time are part of the establishment so where do you think you should, people today who are coming from, where you are coming from, position themselves?

MS MAYET: Well I can only reiterate what I said earlier quoting Tommy Mzwai, there are always two sides to a story but for the journalist there is only one, and that is the truth. So it matters not who is in power, if you are a journalist, you have to write the truth about what is happening. That is a journalist's job to tell the truth about what's happening, whether it's high up or low down or in-between, the truth must be told at all times. That's my view.

MS MKHIZE: Just one last question before I hand you over to the Chair for other colleagues to ask you questions. You know, since we have been sitting here listening to senior journalists with 20 years and more of experience, it's like even the establishment of the truth it's a very difficult thing to do for a journalist based on what they were saying yesterday. So I'm interested in your thinking about the process towards the establishment of the truth.  I might go to a minister, interview a minister and say this is really the truth, this is what the minister said. So what's your view of how should journalists seek the truth?

MS MAYET: Well if a journalist is objective in his reporting he's going to say it the way it has to be, regardless of the consequences.  I know in some cases there may be the feeling that you're a bit nervous about biting the hand that feeds you as it were, but I don't know, as far as I am concerned, the only thing a journalist has to do is to tell the truth. That's my view.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you I'll hand over to the Chair.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you Hlengiwe.  Any other questions? Dumisa.

MR NTSEBEZA: Thank you Chair.  Maybe just for the record and to clarify an issue which comes out in your submission towards the end, and also in view of the fact that I'm going to be dealing with other people who are going to be speaking about amongst other things, UBJ. Is it still your view that none of your former colleagues on the UBJ seem to be bothered enough to come forward and say their say about UBJ?

MS MAYET: I feel that way because I have tried at various times to make contact with some of them.  They never return my calls.  You know it's like they are not interested in speaking to me.  I'm sure many of them must have known that this media hearing was going to be coming up and that it was important that UBJ should be presented here as well, and you know they haven't made any effort to contact me.

MR NTSEBEZA: I see. No, I'm asking because in some of the material that we have and in the submission that is going to be made after you have made your submission, virtually all the points you make, including the point about returning of assets is made in the submission that we going to hear. So I thought that maybe this is something that you said before you were aware of what ...(intervention).

MS MAYET: No well I'll be very happy if there are.

MR NTSEBEZA: Okay.

MS MAYET: I'll be happy about that.

MR NTSEBEZA: Now maybe to say something else about what was available at that time that UBJ was formed, was the South African Society of Journalists in existence at the time?

MS MAYET: The which?

MR NTSEBEZA: SASJ.

MS MAYET: Yes I think they were.

MR NTSEBEZA: And were people who eventually found themselves in UBJ members of SASJ at the time that UBJ was formed?

MS MAYET: I don't remember exactly.