JOURNALISTS WHO PAID THE PRICE FOR FREEDOM IN THE 1970s

LEST WE FORGET

(ZWELAKHE SISULU, JUBY MAYET AND OTHER UBJ MEMBERS WHO EMBARKED ON A PROTEST MARCH IN THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG AFTER THE UBJ WAS BANNED ON OCT 19 1977 ALONG WITH 17 OTHER ORGANISATIONS, INCLUDING THE WORLD AND WEEKEND WORLD) In September 1978, a fellow journalist colleague, Philip Mthimkulu, and I had the opportunity of travelling to Nice in France to attend the annual conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). At this time, we as black journalists were facing relentless harassment, intimidation, detentions, arrests and bannings at the hands of the former apartheid regime after our Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) and 17 other progressive organisations were banned almost a year earlier on 19 October 1977. We had in July 1978 launched the Writers Association of SA (WASA) in the town of Verulam on the North Coast of Natal after our original meeting in the city of Port Elizabeth was banned by the Pretoria authorities. We delivered the following report to the IFJ conference about the actions of apartheid regime in trying to suppress black journalists who emerged as “struggle journalists”. The report delivered to the delegates highlighted the journalists who stood up for Press Freedom and the rights of society in general. NICE, FRANCE (SEPT 18 – 23 1978)

(PHILIP MTHIMKULU AND SUBRY GOVENDER ATTENDING THE IFJ CONFERENCE IN NICE, FRANCE IN SEPTEMBER 1978) Good afternoon Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. We bring you greetings from our fellow colleagues back home in South Africa. We consider ourselves to be in a fortunate position to be addressing you today, for who knows my colleague here, 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 we are here, six of our colleagues at this very moment are languishing in prison – incarcerated without being brought to trial for any offences whatsoever.

(Juby Mayet)

(ISAAC Moroe) They are: i). Mr Willie Bokala, a reporter for the now banned World newspaper who has been in detention for more than a year; ii). 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; iii). Mrs Juby Mayet, the doyen of black journalists who is being held under the country’s Internal Security Act at the Fort Prison in Johannesburg; iv). Mr Isaac Moroe, first WASA president in the city of Bloemfontein; v). Mr Bularo Diphoto, a free-lance journalist in the town of Kroonstad, near Johannesburg. He is also being held under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act; and vi). Ms Tenjiwe Mntintso, who has just been detained in terms of the country’s security laws. Another journalist, Mr Moffat Zungu, who was a reporter for the World newspaper, is one of the accused in the Pan African Congress (PAC) trial that is presently underway in the town of Bethal, near Johannesburg. He was first detained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act.

(JOE THLOLOE - WHO WAS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UBJ) 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 Soweto uprisings, 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 the town of 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 magazine owners, however, dismissed him while he was still in detention. Just before we left South Africa for this conference, Ms Juby Mayet, who is the mother of eight children, wrote to me from the Fort Prison where she is designated as prisoner number 3905178.

(JUBY MAYET AND PHILIP MTHIMKULU) 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 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 the city of 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 breaking the terms of her banning orders. The harassment and intimidation of journalists in South Africa is nothing new but it has taken a turn for the worse after the historic but tragic 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’s ruthless members of the security police because they dared to tell the outside world the cruelties that were being perpetrated in the name of law and order in Soweto and other black townships by South Africa’s jack-boot policemen.

(DUMA NDHLOVU)

(UBJ MEMBERS OUTSIDE THE HOTEL IN WENTWORTH, DURBAN WHERE THEY HELD THEIR SECOND ANNUAL MEETING IN JULY 1977) Two months after the Soweto uprisings, nine black journalists, who played a leading role in reporting events in Soweto, were detained under the Internal Security Act, and two others were incarcerated under Section 6 of the notorious Terrorism Act. Among the very first to be arrested was Mr Joe Thloloe. The others who faced a similar fate were: i). Mr Peter Magubane (46) of the Rand Daily Mail; ii). Mr James Mathews (49) of the Muslim News in Cape Town; iii). Mr Willie Nkosi of the Rand Daily Mail; iv). Mr Jan Tugwana (26) of the Rand Daily Mail; v). Mr Willie Bokala of the World newspaper; vi). Mr Godwin Mohlomi, deputy news editor of the World newspaper; vii). Mr Z B Molefe (36), labour correspondent for the World newspaper; viii). Mr Duma Ndhlovu of the World; and ix). Mr Thoko Mbanjira, editor of the Black Review in the city of East London. Miss Thenjiwe Mntintso of the Daily Dispatch and Mr Nat Serache of the Rand Daily Mail were detained incommunicado under Section 6 of the country’s Terrorism Act. The majority of 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 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 the Drum Magazine while he was in detention. The magazine, which caters mainly for blacks, did not even have the decency of waiting for Mr Mzelini to be released before considering his position. But subsequently after representations by WASA he was re-employed. Mr Andrew Schehisho, a free-lance reporter in Bloemfontein, the home of South Africa’s ruling Afrikaner people, was also detained during this time under one of the country’s many security laws. He came under heavy harassment at the hands of the security police. Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the blackest day in so far as so-called press freedom is concerned was on Oct 19 last year when the Minister of Justice or is it the Minister of Injustice, Mr Jimmy Kruger, banned the only two respected newspapers for the black people, 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 our office equipment, including our printing machine and typewriters which were used to produce our own 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; and banned for five years Mr Donald Woods, editor of the Daily Dispatch, who is now in exile. Six other journalists were also detained at this time. They were: i). Mr Willie Bokala; ii). Miss Thenjiwe Mntintso; iii). Mr Moffat Zungu; iv). Mr Jan Tugwana; v). Mr Enoch Duma of the Sunday Times; and vi). Mr A Q Sayed of the Muslim News.

(MR ENOCH DUMA) Mr Duma, who was charged under the Terrorism Act, was acquitted. But by this time, however, he was in detention for more than a year. 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 highly-aware journalists in South Africa is not intimidation, then I would like to know from the so-called honourable Minister of Justice “what it is”.

(OUR BRAVE JOURNALISTS WENT THE EXTRA MILE TO COVER THE PROTESTS BY SOWETO PUPILS IN JUNE 1976. HERE PUPILS ARE SEEN MARCHING IN SOWETO BUT THEY WERE MET BY ARMED POLICEMEN AND SOLDIERS. THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN BY AN UNKNOWN CAMERA PERSON) It was during this traumatic period that the publication of the UBJ Bulletin and all the 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 officials - Juby Mayet, Joe Thloloe, Mike Norton; and Mabu Nkadimeng - are now facing charges for producing an “undesirable” magazine. Despite the various representations by the IFJ and other world organisations, Mr Kruger’s security police continued their harassment of journalists. In the city of Durban in November last year, the security police detained two local journalists under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. The journalists were: i). Mr Wiseman Khuzwayo, a former reporter on the Daily News who was held for about three months; ii). Mr Quarish Patel, also of the Daily News who was held for 76 days. They were released without any charges being preferred against them. On November 30 – 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, protesting 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. Another two journalists: i). Mr Yusuf Nazeer of the Star; and ii). 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.

(CHARLES NQAKULA, JUBY MAYET, PHILIP MTHIMKULU, MIKE NORTON, RASHID SERIA AND SUBRY GOVENDER AT THE UBJ MEETING AT THE DURBAN WENTWORTH HOTEL IN JULY 1977) Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, we want to just refer to October 19 again and say that when the South African Government 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 harassed were our officials in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. In Durban, Mr Dennis Pather and this correspondent, who worked for the Daily News, came under the scrutiny of the security police. The security police not only arrived at my house in the town of Verulam in the unearthly hour of five am and searched the house, but also visited the offices of the Daily News and searched my desk.

(NAT SERACHE)

(MR DUMA NDHLOVU) 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. We are happy to report, however, that all but six journalists, who we have mentioned earlier, are no longer in detention. Mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen please pardon us if we have laboured you with all these details. 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. 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 that ruthlessly crush all opposition.

(MATHATHA TSEUDU)

(LESLIE XINWA OF EAST LONDON)

(MONA BADELA OF PORT ELIZABETH) In fact we contend that in view of South Africa’s oppressive actions against black journalists 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, and from his equal right to express and publish his opinions thereon and to hear and read the opinions 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.”

(ZWELAKHE SISULU) 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 be 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?

(RASHID SERIA OF CAPE TOWN WHO INITIATED THE GRASSROOTS NEWSPAPER AS PART OF THE PROGRAMME TO ESTABLISH ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPERS) White journalists, except in a few cases, and the white Press in general do not suffer in the same degree as black journalists. But they also have to operate under trying circumstances. There is no legislation in South Africa which is aimed at restricting the Press, but there is a minefield of statutes which circumscribes the activities of newspapers directly or indirectly. Despite world condemnations of South Africa’s restrictive measures against the freedom of expression, there is little hope that Mr Vorster’s apartheid Government will allow the country’s press to operate freely. The Government’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 that the Press in South Africa was in a “probationary period”. Mr Vorster’s Government was to have enacted a Bill in the white 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 today. We in WASA believe that there is no need for the South African Government to interfere in the affairs of the Press. We only want to operate freely and independently 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, Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to give you some information into the position of the so-called Black Press in South Africa. We in South Africa really 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 ones, are owned, managed and run by the white structure. Even black newspapers such as Post which took over from the banned World newspaper, and the Ilanga in Durban, are all owned by the mighty Argus Printing and Publishing Company.

(ZWELAKHE SISULU, THAMI MAZWAI AND OTHER LEADERS OF MWASA, WHICH TOOK OVER FROM WASA) 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 white readership. We in WASA resolved at our last annual meeting in the town of Verulam in July, after our conference in the city of Port Elizabeth was banned by the Pretoria authorities, 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 taking place in the troubled country of ours. At the moment whatever news items that are disseminated through the white South African 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 into fruition by appealing to you good people to use your influence in getting foreign organisations to try to help our ventures.

(Some journalists who supported the calls for alternative newspapers) 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 news agency. When we do realise our ambitious plans 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 lay out personnel. If our finances allow us, we also aim to offer scholarships to outstanding journalists to study abroad. The main purpose for attempting to establish our own newspaper is to expand the news coverage of the black majority. We feel that the black people are fed with the wrong priorities at the moment. 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 the Third World countries and to give the Western countries accurate news of the happenings in South Africa. In South Africa, in view of the racist position where the whites hold the monopoly on the economy of the country, it is inevitable that whites 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. The situation is so farcical that in one newspaper in Durban the head of the messenger’s department is also a craggy old white man. 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 newspapers such as 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 structure, blacks are effectively kept out of top positions in white newspapers. Black reporters, who work on white newspapers, are in the main mere reporters who are employed just to gather news items on black social, sport and other affairs. However, there are a few exceptions where black reporters are allowed some scope. But in these instances too, they are merely tolerated and not encouraged in any way. Regarding our status as a trade union, I 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 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 all its affiliated units informed of the attitudes of the white-owned newspapers. We believe that they will have no alternative but to recognise us.

In conclusion, Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to say that instead of silencing the opponents of apartheid, the bannings and detentions of journalists have had an opposite effect. Far from cowing to the oppression meted out to them, black journalists have taken a solid stance against the apartheid Government. The formation of WASA so soon after the banning of the UBJ offers evidence of the commitment of many black journalists who refuse to accept the enticing carrot being offered by white colleagues to work in so-called “multi-racial” organisations. At home, the crucial question is: “How can blacks work with whites when they do not enjoy both rights and privileges enjoyed by the white minority? It is in the closing of the ranks of black people that we see meaningful change.” The picture we have 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 all South Africans must enjoy full rights, irrespective of race, colour or ethnicity. Therefore, at this stage in the country, where there is a white minority government, progressive people should work towards creating a future society free of racism and minority domination and minority rule. Written in Durban on the lst day of September 1978 ENDS - SUBRYGOVENDER@GMAIL.COM