MEDIA OPPRESSION IN SOUTH AFRICA DURING THE PERIOD JUNE 1976 TO 1978

(PHILIP MTHIMKULU AND SUBRY GOVENDER ATTENDING THE IFJ CONFERENCE IN NICE, FRANCE IN 1978 WHERE THEY DELIVERED A PAPER ON THE SUPPRESSION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS BETWEEN 1976 AND 1978) At a time when we observe the 42nd anniversary of the blackest day in the oppression of the media in South Africa on October 19 1977, I bring you in detail the brutality of the former apartheid regime against journalists and the freedom of the Press. I have compiled in detail the arrests, detentions, intimidation, banning and jailing of journalists between the period from the Soweto uprisings in June 1976 to 1978. The barbarity of the former apartheid regime against journalists, especially black media professionals, was presented by this correspondent, Marimuthu Subramoney (aka Subry Govender), as a paper at the annual conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Nice in France from September 18 to 23 1978. I attended the conference along with colleague, Philip Mthimkulu, as delegates of the Writers Association of South Africa (WASA). WASA was established early in 1978 after the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) was banned along with 17 other anti-apartheid organisations on October 19 1977. I am publishing this speech on October 23 2019 as a reminder that the attainment of a free media after the establishment of our new democracy in South Africa in April 1994 was achieved through tremendous sacrifices by journalists during the apartheid era. This detailed information should be an inspiration to journalists who operate in our free society today. They must always take note that they should not allow themselves to be intimidated or influenced by politicians and that our hard-earned democracy will be under threat if journalists and the media are captured or restricted in any way whatsoever.

(BLACK JOURNALISTS, INCLUDING THE LATE ZWELIKE SISULU AND LATE JUBY MAYET, PARTICIPATING IN A PROTEST MARCH AGAINST THE BANNING OF THE UNION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS(UBJ) ON COTOBER 19 1977) MEDIA SUPPRESSION PAPER DELIVERED AT THE IFJ CONFERENCE IN NICE IN FRANCE IN SEPTEMBER 1978. Good afternoon Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. We bring you greetings from our fellow colleagues back home in South Africa. I consider myself to be in a fortunate position to be addressing you today for who knows my colleague here, brother Philip Mthimkulu, and I may not be permitted to step outside South Africa again in view of the turbulent situation in our country, caused primarily by Mr John Vorster’s white apartheid government. While I am addressing you several of our colleagues at this very moment are languishing in prison – incarcerated without being brought to trial for any offences whatsoever. JOURNALISTS WHO WERE TARGETED They are Mr Willie Bokala, a reporter for the now banned World newspaper who has been in detention for more than a year; Mr Jan Tugwana, a reporter for the Rand Daily Mail who has been in detention for more than a year under Section 6 of South Africa’s notorious Terrorism Act; Mrs Juby Mayet, a doyen of black journalists who is being held under the country’s Internal Security Act at the Fort Prison in Johannesburg; Mr Isaac Moroe, first WASA president in Bloemfontein; Mr Bularo Diphoto, a free lance journalist in the town of Kroonstad who is being held under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act; and Ms Tenjiwe Mtintso, a former reporter for the Daily Dispatch in the city of East London who has just been detained. Another journalist, Mr Moffat Zungu, who was a reporter for the World newspaper in Johannesburg, is one of the accused in the Pan African Congress trial that is presently underway in the town of Bethal, near Johannesburg. He was first detained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. The president of the now banned Union of Black Journalists(UBJ), Mr Joe Thloloe, who was one of the first journalists to be detained after the June 1976 uprisings by students in Soweto, Johannesburg, was released on August 31, 1978 after being detained incommunicado for 547 days under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. Mr Thloloe, a feature writer for the now banned World newspaper, was arrested on March 1 1977 two months after he was released from the Modder B Prison in Benoni where he was held with several other journalists and black leaders under the Internal Security Act. He was at that time a senior reporter for the white-owned black magazine, Drum. The owners, however, dismissed him while he was still in detention. Just before colleague Philip Mthimkulu and I left South Africa for this conference, Juby Mayet, who is the mother of eight children, wrote to me from the Fort Prison where she is designated as prisoner number 3905178. This is what she had to say: “Dear Subry, August 10 has now come and gone and I’m still here. Any way I have adjusted myself to a further period of detention and I’m quite fine. Naturally enough, the two of us who are still in detention do miss the companionship of those who were lucky enough to be released. But, on the other hand, we are very happy that they were restored to their families. “The road to freedom is not a bed of roses.” Miss Thenjiwe Mntintso, a former reporter for the Daily Dispatch in East London, is one of the women detainees who was released early last month after being detained for 10 months. Miss Mntintso, who is a banned person, was not charged for any offences but she is now facing charges for breaching her banning orders. The harassment and intimidation of journalists in South Africa is nothing new but it took a turn for the worse after the historic Soweto uprisings in June 1976. Our colleagues, especially those in Johannesburg, faced the full brunt of the Minister of Justice, Mr James Thomas “it leaves me cold” Kruger. His notorious members of the Security Branch are perpetrating in the name of “law and order” ruthless and jack-boot actions against our journalist colleagues and activist members of the black majority. Two months after the Soweto uprisings, nine black journalists, who played a leading role in reporting and highlighting the events in Soweto, were detained under the Internal Security Act, and two others were incarcerated under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. THE JOURNALISTS WHO PAY A HEAVY PRICE Among the very first to be arrested was Mr Joe Thloloe. The others arrested were Mr Peter Magubane (46) of the Rand Daily Mail; Mr James Matthews (49) of the Muslim News in Cape Town; Mr Willie Nkosi of the Rand Daily Mail; Mr Jan Tugwana (26) of the Rand Daily Mail; Mr Willie Bokala of the World; Mr Godwin Mohlomi, deputy news editor of the World; Mr Z B Molefe (36), labour correspondent of the World; Mr Duma Ndhlovu of the World and Mr Thoko Mbanjira, editor of the Black Review in East London. Miss Thenjiwe Mntintso of the Daily Dispatch and Mr Nat Serache of the Rand Daily Mail were detained incommunicado under Section of the country’s Terrorism Act. The majority of the journalists were held for about four months without being tried in a court of law. They were released at the end of December 1976 but some of them were re-arrested in 1977. Mr Joe Thloloe, for whom the IFJ had made many representations to the South African Government, was arrested on March 1, 1977 and Mr Mike Mzelini, a former reporter for the Drum magazine, was arrested at the end of March 1977. Mr Mzelini, who has just been released after being detained without trial for 14 months, was also dismissed by Drum while he was in detention. The magazine, which caters mainly for the black majority, did not even have the decency of waiting for Mzelini to be released. But subsequently, after pressure from WASA, he was re-employed. A free-lance reporter in Bloemfontein, the home of South Africa’s ruling Afrikaner people, Mr Andrew Schehisho, was also detained during this time under the country’s security laws. He came under heavy harassment at the hands of the ruthless security police. OCT 19 1977 – BLACKEST DAY AGAINST MEDIA FREEDOM The blackest day in so far as so-called press freedom is concerned, was on October 19 last year (1977) when the Minister of Justice or is it the Minister of Injustice, Mr Jimmy Kruger, banned the only two respected newspapers for the black majority, the World and Weekend World. At the same time, he banned the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) and 17 other black organisations. Mr Kruger’s ruthless security police department confiscated all of WASA’s office equipment, including the printing machine and typewriters which were used to produce our journal, Azizthula. Mr Kruger went one step further when he locked up Mr Percy Qoboza and Mr Aggrey Klaaste, editor and news editor respectively of the World newspaper, and banned for five years Mr Donald Woods, Editor of the Daily Dispatch. Mr Woods is now in exile in London. Six other journalists were also detained at this time. They were Mr Willie Bokala, Miss Thenjiwe Mntintso, Mr Moffat Zungu, Mr Jan Tugwana, Mr Enoch Duma of the Sunday Times and Mr A Q Sayed of the Muslim News. Mr Duma, who was charged under the Terrorism Act, was acquitted. But by this time, however, he had been in detention for more than a year. JUSTICE MINISTER – JIMMY KRUGER: “DETENTION OF JOURNALUSTS NOT MEANT TO INTIMIDATE THE MEDIA”. When representations were made to the Minister of Justice for the release of the detained journalists, Mr Kruger had the temerity to announce that the detentions were not meant to intimidate the Press and that the Government had good reasons to detain the journalists. If locking up the most important journalists in South Africa is not intimidation, then we would like to know from the so-called honourable Minister of Justice, what is it? It was during this traumatic period that the publication of our UBJ Bulletin and all subsequent editions were banned by the honourable Minister. The banned UBJ Bulletin contained some revealing articles about the activities of the South African police during the Soweto uprisings. Four of our officials – Juby Mayet, Joe Thloloe, Mike Norton and Mabu Nkadimeng – are now facing charges of producing an “undesirable” magazine. Despite the various representations by the IFJ and other world organisations, Mr Kruger’s security police continued with their harassment and intimidation of journalists. In Durban in November last year, the security police detained two local journalists under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. The journalists were Mr Wiseman Khuzwayo, a former reporter on the Daily News who was held for about three months; and Mr Quarish Patel, also of the Daily News who was held for 76 days. They were released without any charges being preferred against them. JOURNALISTS STAGE PROTEST MARCH AGAINST THE BANNING OF THE UNION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS (UBJ) On November 30 (1977), the day white South Africa went to the polls and re-elected Mr Vorster’s apartheid government, 29 black journalists staged a march in the centre of Johannesburg. They protested against the banning of the UBJ and the detention of journalists. They were arrested by the police and detained for the night in a Johannesburg prison. They were all charged under South Africa’s Riotous Assemblies Act and fined R50 each. They included Mr Zwelakhe Sisulu and Mrs Juby Mayet. Another two journalists, Mr Yusuf Nazeer of the Star, and Mr Boeti Eshack of the Sunday Times, were also charged under the same act for attending an open-air meeting that was called to protest against the banning of the World and 17 other organisations and the detention of journalists. On the day on October 19 1977 when the apartheid regime took its arbitrary action in banning the UBJ and 17 other organisations, it made sure that every top member of the UBJ was visited by the security police. Among those who were visited and raided were our officials in Johannesburg, and Mr Dennis Pather and Mr Marimuthu Subramoney (aka Subry Govender) – the speaker – of the Daily News in Durban. The security police not only arrived at my house in the town of Verulam, north of Durban, at the unearthly hour of five am and searched the house, but also visited the offices of the Daily News and raided my desk. Some of our colleagues who found it impossible to continue to work in South Africa skipped the country under trying conditions. They are Mr Duma Ndhlovu, Mr Nat Serache, Mr Boy Matthews Nonyang and Mr Wiseman Khuzwayo. I am happy to report, however, that all but six journalists, who I have mentioned earlier, are not under detention any longer. Our intention in giving you all these factual details is to explode and crush for all time the myth that South Africa enjoys one of the freest press in Africa. NO PRESS FREEDOM IN SOUTH AFRICA We want to submit today that South Africa is by no means a Christian, democratic country that it claims to be. In our view it is no better than other dictatorships, who crush all opposition. In fact, we contend that in view of South Africa’s oppressive actions against black and progressive white journalists that there is no press freedom at all in our country. What is press freedom? The Commonwealth Press Union once approved the following statement on this important topic: “Freedom of the Press is not a special privilege of newspapers, but derives from the fundamental right of every person to have full and free access to the facts in all matters that directly or indirectly concern him or her, and from their equal right to express and publish their opinions thereon and to hear and read the opinion of others. “In protection of these fundamental human rights it is essential that the Press should be free to gather news without obstruction or interference and free to publish the news and to comment thereon.” Evaluating press freedom in South Africa from this statement we contend that newspapers can only be free if the environment in which it operates is free. In our South Africa the society in which we live is not free and therefore there cannot claim that we have a free press. How can there be Press freedom in South Africa when newspapers are banned and journalists are detained and banned for pursuing the truth and expressing the wishes of the people? In South Africa there is a minefield of statutes which circumscribes the activities of newspapers directly or indirectly. Despite the world condemnations of South Africa’s restrictive measures against the freedom of expression, there is little hope that Mr Vorster’s apartheid regime will allow the press to operate freely. The regime’s intentions were clearly enunciated when after the banning of the World and Weekend World, the former Minister of Interior, Dr Connie Mulder, announced that his Government would not hesitate to close down other newspapers if the State was endangered or law and order threatened. He said the bannings could be construed as a warning to others not to misuse their “right to criticism”. The same Minister warned in November last year (1977) that the press in South Africa was in a probationary period. Mr Vorster’s Government was to have enacted a Bill in the whites-only Parliament early this year to control the Press. But after negotiations with the white-controlled Newspaper Press Union, a special Code of Conduct was formulated to keep the Press in its place. Despite the dropping of the Bill, the newspapers are in a weaker and compromised position now. A FREE PRESS IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD We in WASA believe that there is no need for the minority South Africa Government to interfere in the affairs of the Press. We only want to operate freely and independently in a free and democratic society, subject only to the restraints of decency and the law of libel. A free Press will be the only sure sign of public liberty in South Africa in the future. Now I would like to give you some information into the position of the so-called Black press in South Africa. We in South Africa do not have a single national daily or weekly newspaper that is wholly-owned and published by blacks themselves. All newspapers in South Africa, except for a few insignificant and minor publications, are owned, managed and run by the minority white structure. Even black newspapers such as Post which took over from the banned World and Weekend World newspapers, and the Ilanga in Durban, are all owned by the mighty Argus Printing and Publishing Company. There is a vital need for a black-owned, edited, and managed newspaper in our country because the present newspapers, except for the Post in a very minor way, do not in any way cater for the majority. All the major daily and weekend newspapers are directed at minority white readership. WASA HAS DECIDED ITS OWN NEWSPAPER AND NEWS AGENCY We in WASA resolved at our last annual meeting in Durban in July (1978), after the banning of our meeting in Port Elizabeth, that our organisation should take the lead and the initiative in trying to establish a truly black newspaper that would cater for the aspirations and the needs of the black majority. We have also decided to establish a news agency in South Africa that will supply the world with accurate news on events in the troubled country of ours. At the moment whatever news items that are disseminated through the white S A Press Association (SAPA) are at most times seen through the eyes of white journalists. The news that is leaving South Africa at the moment is not in the best interests of the black majority. We aim to bring our ambitious projects to fruition by appealing to you to use your influence in getting foreign organisations to try to help our ventures. We want to as far as possible help ourselves but being the exploited class, we don’t have the necessary capital and finance to establish a newspaper and a news agency. When we do realise our ambitions, we would like the projects to be run and managed entirely by blacks. In this regard, we intend to establish a training school for aspiring journalists, sub editors, and other media professionals. If our finances allow us, we also aim to offer scholarships to outstanding journalists to study abroad. The main purpose of attempting to establish our own newspaper and news agency is to expand the news coverage about the interests and aspirations of the black community. We feel that the black people are fed at the moment with the wrong priorities. Sex, crime, rape and pillage are not going to help us gain self-reliance and freedom. We also aim to establish contact, through our news agency, with Third World countries and to give the Western countries accurate news of the developments and happenings in South Africa. In South Africa, in view of the racist position the minority white people hold the monopoly on the economy of the country, it is inevitable that the minority will own all the major newspapers in the country. And if this is the position then it goes without saying that they will automatically be appointed to all the top positions such as editors, news editors and other executive positions in a newspaper. Under these circumstances there is no scope whatsoever for black journalists to be appointed to executive positions on white-owned and run newspapers, except of course in newspapers such as the Post and Ilanga. Even black supplements in white newspapers are also headed by white editors. These supplements are mere token extensions of a newspaper and in no way cater for the aspirations of the black majority. In view of the country’s apartheid structures, blacks are effectively kept out of top positions in white-owned newspapers. Black reporters, who work on establishment newspapers, are in the main mere reporters who are employed just to gather news items on black affairs. They are very rarely given assignments to cover major events. However, there are a few exceptions where black reporters are allowed some scope. But in this instance too, the reporters are merely tolerated and not encouraged in any way. Regarding our status as a trade union, we would like to stress that we do not enjoy trade union rights in South Africa because of Mr Vorster’s apartheid legislations which prohibit the recognition of black trade unions. WASA, which is now only finding its feet, is soon going to ask newspaper managements to grant us negotiating rights. We are looking forward to this development and will definitely keep the IFJ and its affiliated units informed of the attitudes of white newspapers. We believe that they have no alternative but to recognise us. BANNING AND DETENTIONS WILL NOT DETER BLACK JOURNALISTS TO CONTINUE THE STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM In conclusion, we would like to say that the silencing of the opponents of apartheid and the banning and detention of journalists have had an opposite effect. Far from cowing to the brutal treatment meted out to journalists, black journalists have taken a solid and unified stand against the apartheid government. The formation of WASA so soon after the banning of the UBJ a year ago offers evidence of the commitment of many black journalists who refuse to accept the enticing carrots being offered to work in so-called “multi-racial” organisations. At home, the crucial question is: “How can we as black journalists work to highlight and promote the interests of the black majority?” It is in the closing of the ranks of black people that we see meaningful change. The picture we painted of our country may be a gloomy one. But that is the truth. However, when all hope of peaceful change is fast receding and when all hope of a new deal for all our people is now only a dream, we will still continue to hope. Like someone once said: “It is only for those without hope that we have hope.” We in South Africa believe that at this stage in the country where there is a minority and racist government, black journalists have to work on their own to promote the aspirations of the oppressed black people. We would not like to see any hindrance in the struggles for a free, fair, and equal society. We want to make it clear that we have no ill-will against other colleagues but for the time being they should instead use their influence to change minority attitudes. It is not the black people who need re-education but the minority who have failed to bring their apartheid government to order and to change the country for a better future for all South Africans. Written in Durban on this 1st day of September, 1978.