Twenty-seven-years ago on April 10 1993, South Africa lost a giant revolutionary and a future leader of the country, when he was assassinated by right-wing elements.The assassination, almost one year before the launch of our new, non-racial and democratic South Africa, robbed the new country of a freedom fighter who could have taken over from the first President, Nelson Mandela.He was leader of the South African Communist Party and an executive member of the ANC at this time.
He was only 51-years-old at the time of his tragic death.In order not to forget the role played by this great leader, I published this radio documentary in April 2008.
In early 1995, after covering the official visit of President Nelson Mandela to India, I visisted the state of Tamil Nadu to continue my search for my roots. During this visit I had the good opportunity of inquiring and making arrangements to interview the talented and gifted young musician, A R Rahman. He was 28 at that time and living with his mother and sister in Chennai.
He invited me to his house where I conducted the interview.I inquired about his family, his early life after his father passed away when he was 9-years—old, his entry into music, his conversion to Islam, and his social and political views.I found this interview in one of my casettes today k (April 11 2020) while going through my files during this period of Coronia Virus lockdown.
Three weeks after the killer Tsunami waves hit several parts of India, I visited the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu which was hit the hardest by the Tsunami.
More than 10 000 people were killed in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the Ka Nicobar and Andaman islands.
Tens of thousands of others were left homeless and destitute.
I visited a number of coastal areas from Chennai, the capital, to Nagapatnam in the deep south.
Now that India and the world at large have been hit by another major disaster – Corona Virus (Covid 19) – I am publishing several of my radio documentaries about the Tsunami disaster in Tamil Nadu.
(JUDGE NAVANETHAN PILLAY WITH TAMIL PEOPLE FROM SRI LANKA DURING A CONFERENCE IN DURBAN IN 2015 ON THE PLIGHT OF SRI LANKAN TAMILS AFTER THE GENOCIDE A FEW YEARS EARLIER)
Judge Navanethan Pillay, who was appointed the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner in July 2008, came from very humble beginnings in South Africa. She was born in the historical village of Clairwood in Durban in 1941 to working class parents. Her ancestors arrived in the former Natal Colony under British rule as indentured sugar cane labourers from a little village near the city of Madurai in the South Indian state Tamil Nadu. Subry Govender interviewed Judge Pillay in Durban after her UN appointment and compiled this radio documentary about her early life, schooling, university education and POLITICAL awakening South Africa.
(NELSON MANDELA MEETING MRS SONIA GANDHI DURING HIS OFFICIAL VISIT TO INDIA IN 1995)
(NELSON MANDELA WHEN HE WAS INSTALLED AS PRESIDENT OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA IN MAY 1994)
At a time when South Africans – irrespective of race, colour or creed – are getting together to help one another during this time of the Corona Virus, I would like to bring you the voice of Nelson Mandela. He had always promoted the concept of unity, non-racialism and peaceful co-existence.
This radio documentary was produced in 2008 at a time when some elements were promoting racial domination in order to raise their profiles.
In 2014 when fears were being expressed about the ANC’s intentions to introduce new measures to restrict the media in publishing sensitive government information, there was a hue and cry against what people termed “moves top control the media” in the non-racial and democratic South Africa.At this time I recalled the views of Nelson Mandela about media freedom and why it was vitally important for a free media to survive in society.
I compiled this radio documentary in an attempt to emphasise the importance of a Free Media for the survival of our democracy.
In June 2011, at a time when the ruling ANC Government had planned to introduce new measures to restrict the media in the country, there was a hue and cry against what most people described as plans to control free flow of information. The new measures included the Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal. But these measures were dropped after the ANC realised that it was going against its own principles of creating a society where freedom of expression and freedom of the media would be guaranteed.
I wrote this piece at this time to remind the ANC that it was going against all those who had fought and sacrificed their lives for a free and unbridled media.
NEW MEDIA PROPOSALS BEFORE PARLIAMENT ARE AGAINST THE FREEDOM OF THE MEDIA THAT STRUGGLE JOURNALISTS AND THE ANC FOUGHT FOR
By Marimuthu Subramoney
(aka Subry Govender)
Saturday, June 11, 2011
"Freedom of the media, which is the essence of democracy, will flourish in our country. We will feel deprived if we had a press that does not consider itself independent and free to criticise the action of public figures."
These noble and gallant words were expressed by no less a leader than former President and former leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, when addressing local and foreign journalists in Johannesburg only a few days before the country's first democratic elections on April 27 1994.
Mandela added: "We need a Government that puts people first. The ANC will strive for an open society. Democracy means more than just a vote, it means vigorous debate. People must be free to express their views without fear, including criticising the Government of the day."
The independent and free media that Mandela talked about was enshrined in our new constiion when the ANC was elected to power 17 years ago. South Africans had been assured that the new democracy will promote the growth of a free, unhibited and vibrant media.
It would be unlike the media of the apartheid era when scores of progressives journalists had to pay a heavy price in the struggles for a free media. Former Defence Minister, Charles Nqakula; Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe; former SABC CEO Zwelike Sisulu; Mathatha Tseudu; Juby Mayet; Philip Mthimkulu and the writer were just some of the scores of media people who had been jailed, banned and house-arrested, harrassed and intimidated and denied passports between the 1970s and late 1980s for fighting for media freedom.
For most of the past 17 years there's no doubt whatsoever that we as journalists have enjoyed the privilege of operating without any restrictions, curbs or threats.
But over the past few years some ruling members and politicians have tried to "stifle" the media with threats and other forms of intimidation.
Some of the new politicians even used to telephone editors and journalists to influence them to cover their progammes and speeches. They wanted journalists to be their "PROs".
Some of the politicians did not take kindly to the reportage of the widespread corruption which unfortunately has become part and parcel of our new South African democracy. One politician in the Eastern Cape recently even called on people to burn down a local newspaper because he saw the newspaper as not being supportive of the ruling party.
Therefore, the new measures, the Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal, that the Government and the ruling ANC are now trying to push through parliament with undue haste have come as no surprise.
But for "struggle" leaders like Mandela and others, the new moves will not only be a surprise but also a painful and shocking development.
At this period it is worth recalling the high regard in which Mandela and others had held the media in. Only a day after he was released from prison on February 11, 1990, Mandela addressed the media at the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town. He not only acknowledged the role the media played in his freedom and that of others but also congratulated them for their work.
"I want to assure you," he said, "that I am absolutely excited to be out".
He went on: "I am also excited to have the opportunity of addressing you because throughout these difficult years in prison the press, both local and foreign, had been a brick to us.
"I think it was the intention of the Government that we should be forgotten and that their leaders - leaders of the homelands and the bantustans and all those who work within Government structures - should be built up and that we should be forgotten.
"It was the press that kept the memory of those who had been in prison for offences which they had committed in the course of their political activities. It was the press that never forgot us and therefore we are indebted to you and I am happy to be here this morning with you."
Over the next few years during his travels around the country and to many parts of the world, Mandela ensured that he always maintained a cordial relationship with journalists and regularly engaged in jovial exchanges. He never forgot to compliment the media whenever the need arose.
"Being followed around by competent journalists and asked questions all the time keeps us on our toes," he once told journalists at a media briefing in Johannesburg.But at the same time he also stood his ground when he disagreed with questions posed by journalists. He always did this without ever trying to give the impression that he wanted journalists to "toe the line" and stop asking awkward and difficult questions.
"Journalists have threatened that they are going to ask me awkward questions and I hope there are very good journalists who would protect me," he said once in early 1994.
"As foreign correspondents you will experience from your own perspective the difficulties of transition to a democratic South Africa. We have just three months before South Africa's first democratic elections. The future hold many exciting prospects for South Africa."
Now with Mandela and other leaders out of the way, there are some, not the majority, who pay very little value to a free and unbridled media in a democracy.
These elements must be reminded that a free, unfettered, courageous and vibrant media is the only guarantor of the continuation of our new hard-fought and earned non-racial democracy.
Therefore, despite the freedom of the media being guaranteed in our constitution, journalists must take up the cudgels and not stop until the powers that be remove the new Protection of the Information Bill and the ANC discards the Media Appeals Tribunal. There could be discussions about the Media Appeals Tribunal but we cannot allow a statutory tribunal that is going to be made up of government-appointed "party hacks" and other "hangers on". The campaign against the two measures must continue even if journalists have to go to jail once again in defence of the "freedom of the media" that Nelson Mandela talked about after being released in 1990 from nearly three decades of imprisonment.
South Africans must realise that at one time after Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 that country also enjoyed freedom of the press. But after President Robert Mugabe began to interfere and made the media a "mouthpiece" of his regime, one could see what has happened to the media there.
The measures now being promoted by the Government and the ANC may be the start of our media also travelling that route and becoming a "pliant" and "toothless" institution.
One is compelled to ask the question: What are some of the leaders and officials of the ruling ANC and the Government afraid of? We are not at war with any country nor anyone intending to attack our country for our gold and diamonds!
We are only at war with widescale fraud, corruption, thievery and other misdeeds at local, provincial and national government levels. The ANC and the Government must realise that if we don't expose these misdeeds then we will only be violating the freedom of expression and freedom of the media that all of us, including the ANC, fought for and won. Why should socially-conscious journalists be sent to lengthy jail terms if they expose corruption and other misdeeds committed by elected political leaders and government officials? The proposed new media regulations now before parliament will, once it becomes law, allow the Government not only to hide official corruption but also to jail courageous journalists who are not prepared to "toe the line". - Subry Govender, jUNE 11 2011
