TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 6

Subsection 4

Discrimination against women

53 Former journalist and founder member of the Union of Black Journalists, Juby Met, and journalist Nomavenda Mathiane added their voices to what other black journalists had said about how people of colour were discriminated against in the newsroom.

54 Mathiane highlighted the degree to which black women writers in particular were discriminated against. She said women were not given meaningful beats and were not promoted to senior positions, and that they were relegated to women’s pages that dealt with beauty, health and socials. She also said training was given mainly to male journalists and that, while male journalists were offered overseas trips to widen their journalistic horizons, female writers had to organise such trips on their own and often had to take leave without pay when on such visits.

The Afrikaans press

55 The Afrikaans press declined to make a submission to the Commission. Instead, it provided the Commission with a copy of Oor Grense Heen, the official history of Nasionale Pers (Naspers).

56 Rather oddly in the context, the book repeatedly confirms that the various newspapers in the group were always pro-NP government institutions. The opening paragraph states candidly that the NP victory in 1948 meant that the company became a pro-government institution. The history concedes that Die Burger, for instance, promoted Verwoerd’s ideals of bantustans from an early stage and that, after Sharpville, the same newspaper advised that all positive aspects be speeded up. Occasionally, doubts about apartheid do surface but, in the main, the book reflects a total lack of concern for the company’s support of the racist system.

57 Archbishop Tutu, opening the hearing, lamented the attitude adopted by the Afrikaans press. By not participating, he said, it would lose its case by default. He asked:

Is silence from that quarter to be construed as consent, conceding that it was a sycophantic handmaiden of the apartheid government?

58 The dissatisfaction of some Afrikaans journalists over the decision not to participate at the hearing was muted during the hearing itself. However, after the hearing the Commission received some 150 affidavits from individual Afrikaans-speaking journalists. These acknowledged the important role of the Commission and expressed disappointment at the Naspers decision not to appear. They believed that the Afrikaans press had been an integral part of the structure that had kept apartheid in place, particularly in the way Afrikaans papers had lent their support to the NP during elections. The submissions maintained that, although the papers may not have been directly involved in violations, they should accept moral responsibility for what happened because they had helped support the system in which gross human rights violations occurred.

59 They said that “many Afrikaans journalists were deaf and blind to the political aspirations and sufferings of black fellow South Africans” and did not inform their readers about the injustices of apartheid. When knowledge about gross human rights violations became public, the journalists felt they had too readily accepted the denials and disingenuous explanations of the NP. Those who made submissions also sought forgiveness for their lack of action and committed themselves to ensuring that history would not repeat itself.

60 Professor Ari de Beer echoed the general tone of these submissions. He said he had felt compelled to approach the Commission because of the revelations at earlier Commission hearings, particularly those of Vlakplaas. Professor de Beer felt that he and many other “God-fearing” Afrikaners could not accept personal responsibility for specific gross human rights violations. Nevertheless, he did feel that there should be an acceptance of individual and collective responsibility for those violations committed under the ideological veil of apartheid, in the name of the Christian religion and Afrikanerdom. He expressed regret for keeping quiet about apartheid when he knew he should have actively protested against it. He challenged those who claimed that the Afrikaans press had nothing to answer for.

61 Former editor of the Vrye Weekblad, Max du Preez, added a stinging note:

They can protest as much as they want, but one truth remains: until the last few months of PW Botha’s term as State President, Afrikaans newspapers never opposed the NP or their security forces on any important issue.

The alternative media

62 Throughout the period under review, the alternative media – some of it commercial, some not – attempted to challenge what was depicted in the mainstream press. Their continued revelations exposed the timidity of the bigger publishing houses in challenging the government and accelerating change. With predictable regularity, these publications were forced to close either through repeated banning of the papers or their staff, or sabotage of their operations: for example, intimidation of printers or disruption of distribution.

63 A prime example of the use of legal pressure to harass and finally cause the closure of a newspaper was that of Vrye Weekblad. Pressure began before it even published its first edition. Its registration in terms of the Newspaper Registration Act was held back by the then Minister of Justice, Kobie Coetsee, pending a report by the security police. An official SAP document marked ‘secret’, given to the editor Max du Preez, recorded the former government's concern about the possible content and influence of the paper. Knowing the owners had very little money, government demanded not the customary nominal fee for registration of the newspaper, but R40 000.

64 In another secret document, the government revealed its intentions to harass the paper with legal action to ensure it was closed down. In 1988, the government took a strategic decision not to ban or close newspapers because of the negative publicity this generated and introduced a new tactic of bleeding the alternative media dry through the judicial system.

65 During the 1980s, while alternative publications owned by whites appear to have been subjected to legal action in an effort to have them closed down, the more community-oriented publications, funded mainly by donors, were more aggressively harassed and their staff members constantly detained and often tortured.

66 The South African Communist Party (SACP) submitted that, from the 1950s, banishment, bannings, harassment and the physical removal of political opposition, together with the seizure of presses and publishing equipment, had the effect of preparing the market for the commercial media. Genuine political opposition groups were prevented from running their own media.