Special Hearings — Women's Hearings — 1997-07-29

JUBIE MAYET: Well, I could not, obviously, continue with my job, because it was a newspaper job and I was not allowed to be anywhere near a newspaper office.  I could not work.  We did apply for permission for me to continue working.  I think that was in about 80.  I think Revelation Ntolo wrote a letter to the Chief Magistrate requesting that I be granted permission to work as a sub-editor.  I also wrote a letter in support of this application.  It was turned down.  The Voice was very kind.  They continued paying me for, I think, the full year after I was banned although I could not, I could obviously not work, but they continued paying my salary until December.  So it was tough.  I mean, you know, I was not working, I could not, I felt bad about having to take money, my salary, when I was not actually not doing anything to earn it, but it helped, obviously.
 And it did not, you know, the banning did not really effect me in so far as my personal, my social life, my family life was concerned.  I refused to allow it to do so.  You know, I use to have friends over, I use to visit, I was in Soweto on various occasions, you know, and, as I say, I once walked into the Voice's offices to work.  I visited some other buddies on Drum Magazine, you know.  I mean, I just lived as though the banning order was not there except for the fact that I could not continue with my job and when the Voice was forced to stop paying me, you know, various copies of, issues of the Voice were also banned from the time it started to the time it eventually went under.  And I had to know seriously look for a job.  
 I found a job, I got a job at the Carlton Hotel as a floor supervisor.  That is something like R300,00 and some odd rand a month.  Now, I mean, even at that time when you have eight school going children, that is not a lot of money.  I left the, I had to work shifts which was another difficulty for me, because of the transport situation.  I do not have a car, I do not drive and I use to have to work shifts, you know.  Start at some weird hour in the morning and work till maybe eight, nine at night when there were no busses and that. So, then eventually I found another job with a firm of attorneys, a small firm.  They paid me slightly more and, obviously, the hours were better, you know.  It was like a normal working day.  I learnt to operate a switchboard there for the first time, but it was tough.  I mean, as a journalist, I was earning, I use to earn far, well, more than double what I was earning then working as a so-called switchboard operator at this law firm.  
 Then Priscilla Jana met me one day when I was walking to the bus stop and she offered me a lift home.  She was living in Lenasia at the time and she told me that a friend of hers was looking for a secretary.  He was just down the road from me in Commissioner Street.  Where I was working was Shakespeare House.  He was in Security Building in Commissioner Street.  So, I went to see him and, well, they knew I was banned and all that, but he wanted me to come and work for him and he was going to pay me more.  So, I left the first law firm and I worked with him, I worked for him. He was a one man operation at the time and I stayed with him up until now when I was forced to leave work because of arthritis.  
 I did not go back to journalism.  I did some odd writing inbetween for, there was a newspaper called the Sowetan Sunday Mirror.  I had a column for them and the agony column and so, a light hearted "skinner" column.  I do not know if some people remember that.  That use to bring in some extra bucks and, of course, I had help. There were lots of people who were very supportive during the time.  I mean, I know when I was in detention for the five months, when my children came to visit me, they use to tell me sometimes people brought food, you know, vegetables, meat and once somebody left anonymously on the stoep, a big box of fresh vegetables.  They did not know who it came from, because there was no note with it, but they found it on the, you know, on the stoep outside my house one, during the time when I was in detention.  
 And, yes, people were very supportive, you know.  I mean, my family, my mother and my brothers and sisters were fantastic.  My brother helped, you know, wherever it was necessary, but, I mean, as an independent woman, I mean, I had been working since the time I was, I just, I was 20 when I started working as a reporter and you earn your own money, you become independent and, as a widow, I had to become even more independent, you know.  I lost my husband at a young age.  My baby girl, at that time, was only seven weeks old when he died in a car crash.  And it was hard for me, you know, to go through that period of the detention and then thereafter the banning when I had to rely so much on other people, because I had been independent.  I had brought up my children, virtually, on my own, you know.  It was not an easy time, I mean.

YASMINE SOOKA: I think that what you really do show us is that despite all of this you have actually survived the experience and you talk about it fairly casually, without anybody realising that, in fact, it does have an impact on you and I think we appreciate the fact that you choose to treat it in that kind of way, that none of us doubt that, in fact, it must have left scars and, in fact, some pain.  You know that, of course, in a few weeks time we are also going to be having a hearing on the media ...

JUBIE MAYET: Yes, I just heard about it.

YASMINE SOOKA: ... and I am sure that your experiences have been part of the UBJ at an infancy stage is certainly going to be worth having ...

JUBIE MAYET: Yes.

YASMINE SOOKA: ... in that hearing.  So if you do feel like making a submission that is available.  I am going to pass you back to the Chairperson.

JUBIE MAYET: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.  Joyce Seroke.  Thank you very much for coming forward.  I would just like to encourage you to, really, allow yourself now to be more vulnerable and work on some of your experiences.  I mean, you have shared about the most difficult life experiences when you are without a job when you are a single parent.  At that time you had to be resilient, but I should think when you look back it will be important for you to allow yourself to be vulnerable, go through all the healing mechanisms you need, but you are, certainly, one of the survivors.  We thank you very much for ...

JUBIE MAYET: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: ... coming forward.

JUBIE MAYET: I will mention I have got a healing mechanism, but I will not mention it here.  Thank you.