Special Hearings — Media Hearings — UNKNOWN

THAMI MAZWAI: Okay.  Thank you.  I was, thank you Mr Chairman.  I was informed, of course, when I, by my colleagues that earlier on when you started this session, you thanked the media houses for being co-operative.  I just wanted to bring to your attention that some of the black journalists who are giving evidence today, they had to take day off and some of them had to take leave for them to be able to come here.  	I have been a journalist since 1969 when I joined the then Golden City Post as a cub reporter.  The previous year I had been expelled from the University of, from the University College of Fort Hare.  The Golden City Post was, basically, a black operation although whites were in management from news editor upwards.  We only had a black Assistant News Editor and that was Godwin Motshlome and there were a few black sub-editors.  Now, a sub-editor is as good as a journalist.  There is no seniority about it, but the blacks were supposed to become excited when they were appointed sub-editors.  The significant feature, of course, during this era was that any white who came into the newspaper, whether it is The World or Golden City Post, came in as "die baas", as somebody in authority.  At no stage would he ever get to take instructions from a black editor or a black news editor.  	The Golden City Post did not touch politics although it thrived on reporting transgressions under the Immorality Act.  It also specialised in sex stories.  Political stories were spiked as a matter of course and we, thus, did not waste time doing them.  I then joined The World after being fired from the Golden City Post.  I would like to put it on record, of course, that I was not fired for any good reason, it was my misbehaviour, but I would not like to mislead the Commission.  I then joined The World as a sports reporter.  Here again, coverage was devoted to, this newspaper, coverage was devoted to soccer, murder and rape.  Furthermore, it was quite made clear to us that we could not be members of the PAC, ANC or any banned organisation, because journalists were supposed to be neutral.  They could not take sides in the ongoing conflict, but, of course, I mean, our masters and their white journalists could belong to members of the, could become members of the SADF and even vote on election day and there was, and nothing was said about this.  In fact, when white journalists went to the border to go and fight against soldiers of the ANC or the PAC, their jobs were guaranteed until they came back, but if at all you were found guilty of being a member of the ANC or the PAC, you were fired as a matter of course.  	All power in these, in The World was vested in the then Editorial Director, Charles Steel, and we had a black Editor, M T Morane.  In fact, Morane got a letter of increase on the first of January like all of us and he got it from Charles Steel.  The World was owned by The Argus and it was a Bantu section for The Star newspaper.  We got politics from The Star and World, as The World newspaper, as the, The World reporters could not touch politics as a matter of law.  I must mention here that because I had been a, according to my records at the newspaper, I had been a political prisoner between 1963 and 95, I was specifically told that I must not touch politics by a long barge pole, because whatever I would write would threaten the newspaper.	All this changed, of course, when Percy Gqoboza took over as editor on his return from the United States and with the outbreak of the June 16 uprising we could be on the forefront of writing the story in Soweto as it, in Soweto and in other townships as it unfolded.  We covered the unrest extensively and ... John Misikeli took over, the then newly established Post Transvaal and there were no apologies with The Post, the paper was simply rightist.  Homeland politics were highlighted and if they at all Matanzima was coming to Soweto a car was, a reporter and a car were assigned to flow him to wherever he went to and we were to have a full report on what he was doing with the pictures, with pictures and everything.  However, news about the ANC and PAC, Azapo and Black Consciousness Movement, about black politics perse, what we considered as relevant politics were ruthlessly suppressed.  	When Priests went on march in 1978 they read a statement from the dock.  I was given the statement, but Post refused to publish it.  Mr Curly said it was revolutionary and he was not going to publish it.  When Solomon Mahlangu was sentenced to death, the front page of The Post described him as a killer.  I objected to Mr Curly and said how can you call him a killer and he said, a Judge of the Supreme Court had called him a killer and the newspaper was going to call him a killer.  In any case, had he not killed people and, of course, by people he meant the three whites who had been killed.  My relations with this gentlemen were so bad that he once asked me to his office and said if I thought his editorship was right wing, why did I not resign.  Of course, I told him that I would not do his dirty job.	The newspapers of the day regarded guerrillas of the ANC and PAC as terrorists and when we, as black journalists objected to the use of the word "terrorists" we were told that this is what they were and the newspapers were going to use the word "terrorist" and, in any case, if at all they use the word "guerrilla" they would be giving respectability to their activities and it was not the policy of these newspapers to give respectability to such acts of terror.  So, every newspaper in the country used the word "terrorist" at will.  	We also had to be very careful, I mean, what Jon has said about what we wrote about the police.  Stories that made them villains seldom saw the dawn of day.  They were spiked or rewritten.  I recall an incident in 1976 in the Central Western Jabavu when the police shot at students, they were on their, in a helicopter, and they were shooting at students.  When I wrote that these police were in a helicopter and they shot at the students, the then sub-editor, who was white, told me it could not have happened.  It was just, and that was the end of the story.  At this stage, I mean, a white, whites use to be brought in from The Star to come and help produce the, come and produce The World, but their job was to rewrite some of the stories, were to rewrite some of the stories, some of our stories and make them acceptable.	In the early part of 1978 several journalists were in detention.  The incident that Jon Qwelane has referred to and, of course, The World had been banned and we decided to go on a march protesting their detention.  This was shortly after the Priests had gone on march.  Needless to add, I mean, we were inspired by the march of the Priests.  We were arrested and after two days we payed admission of guilt fines after being in police custody.  As if this was not enough, The Rand Daily Mail and The Post, from where we came from further punished us be deducting two days from our leave or two days salary.  We were told that we had disgraced the profession and had been used by lawyer Shansheti who made a lot of money by defending politicals.	The industry was only shaken when the newly formed Media Workers Association of South African went on a strike demanding better wages.  Working conditions at black newspapers and black journalists and black journalist's salaries were under par.  The bosses would not talk to us or backed down and the strike lasted three to four months.  The 80's were horrifying. I was now working, The Post had been closed down after this strike and The Sowetan had taken its place.  Successive States of Emergency reduced our ability to report.  The Argus head office instructed us to check all sensitive stories with lawyers before publishing them.  In fact, as news editor I had to phone lawyers with all the stories that were before me and then the lawyers would then become news editors and say you take out that line, this is permissible, no, that will get you into trouble or sometimes, no, you have got to scrap that entire story.  	Self censorship was the order of the day.  Editors were continually called to head office, that is black, that is the editor of The Sowetan, continually called to head office for briefings.  The others had made it clear that if the police closed The Sowetan it was the end of the road.  However, what was a damning enlightenment on all the English language newspapers was that the Government declared States of Emergency and these States of Emergency had provisions for the suppression of any news that could be construed as revolutionary or it, or could be, incite people to illegal, so-called illegal activities.  The newspapers accepted this.  It was only when Cosatu decided, Cosatu and the United Democratic Front, it was only the Cosatu and the United Democratic Front and, at one stage, the Natal Indian Congress, and other organisations that challenged these laws.  The newspapers refused to challenge the laws even those these were the laws that actually affected the free flow of information that were telling society what was happening in the townships and so on.	In fact, I think it was in 1978, when the police had banned a meeting by MWASA, that we were called to a lawyer's office and told by the lawyers that The Argus had decided to pay for that, for any legal action that we could bring against the police for this meeting, for the ban on this meeting to be overturned.  The lawyers told us that The Argus felt very embarrassed that it did not do anything about the media regulations and only the United Democratic Front and Cosatu, were the only people who were fighting these restrictions.  Of course, Natal newspapers joined in later, because it had now become quite an embarrassment to have community organisations engaging in a fight that should have been theirs as a matter of principle.  At a, yes, I think I have, yes.	I was detained in June 1981 for interviewing one of the June 1976 student, (indistinct).  I refused to give evidence and I was sent to jail for 18 months after having been in detention for eight months.  Now I just want to come, to credit The Sowetan, at the time, because they payed my salary for the entire period I was in jail and I also endorse Jon Qwelane's points that quite a lot of blacks, black activists who were in detention were always, always had their salaries payed.  However, those convicted for participating in the activities of banned organisations would be summarily dismissed when convicted.  Although, as I have made this point earlier on, whites could go for their, to their military and would have their jobs guaranteed.	Of course, one has also got to mention that there are, that, of course, later on in 19, in the 80's, the unkindness cut of all for black journalists was that when the UDF and Azapo were at war with each other.  Again, it was the black journalist who was the meat in the sandwich.  Tremendous pressures were put on us by both sides involved in the dispute and black journalists were just terrified to write anything about this feud.  	In conclusion, I think that there is no denying that the English language media, from the 60's onwards, was in an apartheid mindset.  That apartheid mindset continues up to this present day.  The hypocrisy that we have fought in those days continues to this day.  If I may just give an example of how news were, are, continue to be manipulated where the black experience with the national questions is still not on the agendas of this newspapers, can be supported by the complaints that are coming from black academics, from black professionals as to the true role of that, the mainstream media is playing, where, if at all, as a black person you are found with your finger in the tin, it becomes a great big story, but black successes are relegated to the background.  	I had quite a humorous experience last week when I wrote a letter to The Star complaining, responding to an article that they had written about me.  The letter was so carefully edited that instead it made me a fool and this is the type of fairness that The Star likes to boast about and, in conclusion, one can also say that the attitude of the mainstream media is also seen with the contempt with which they hold our new institutions of civil order, of our democratic society.  	Jon Qwelane mentioned about the blockades by some groups of journalists.  Just a few weeks ago we had a situation in which two newspapers defied a court order.  They defied a court order, showing absolute contempt for the courts of this country.  None of the newspapers in the country dared criticise them and when I criticised them, I have been crucified by my colleagues in the media as who gave me the mandate to do that.  This is the type of attitude that you find today where, because this is a Black Government, therefore, when you, as a black journalist, you have got to say, you have got to write a positive story about the Government or about South Africa, the changes.  You suddenly become a lapdog of the, you become a lapdog of the Government.  	In other words, you become a good journalist only if you write stories that are critical of the ANC and of the Government.  This continues up to the present day.  I think I will just stop there.  Thank you very much.