Journalists enjoy the privilege of having a frontrow seat to history and writing the first draft. But it is also an enormous responsibility.
Reporting on the 2024 elections, I had a duty to inform, educate and unpack the developments that would lead to a seminal change in our political landscape. This was often challenging as many of the meetings and discussion were taking place in private, away from the camera’s lens.
This meant that initial reports were often based on cultivated sources, requiring us reporters to trust individual politicians’ and parties’ accounts, and their versions of what had transpired.
An insatiable curiosity around what was going on inside the meeting rooms and behind the scenes was the catalyst for this book. I was inspired by other journalistic accounts of key moments in our history.
I count among my favourites Patti Waldmeir’s Anatomy of a Miracle, Allister Sparks’ Tomorrow is Another Country, Rian Malan’s A Traitor’s Heart, Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull, Peter Harris’s Birth and Frank Chikane’s Eight Days in September.
It is crucial that working journalists contribute to this collection and document history for posterity. I wanted this book to be among those considered as the definitive historical record of this period for generations to come.
Reconstructing timelines and conversations was often like a jigsaw puzzle, a tetris of trying to place events in the correct location and the right sequence. Already, memories have begun to atrophy – some blurred by excessive pressure and exhaustion.
It took a tremendous amount of coordination, energy and effort to ensure that I heard as many voices as I did. In the end, I interviewed more than 25 people and had more than a hundred hours of recordings. It was incredibly difficult to get time in politicians’ diaries, to convince them to speak to me, and for them to trust me. I had to work through spokespeople, gatekeepers, lawyers and all kinds of backchannels to win them over.
What surprised me most was how vulnerable the politicians were and how they truly allowed me into their innermost thoughts about this period – about what was keeping them awake at night, literally in some instances. They spoke about their fears, their hopes and their ambitions.
President Cyril Ramaphosa brought so much humour to his interview, relishing the nostalgia of recalling that period. Gayton McKenzie was full of hilarious anecdotes, and Ryan Coetzee and Siviwe Gwarube had me fully entertained with descriptions of their colleagues.
I was also struck by how human they were. We encounter politicians as one-dimensional characters and I have tried to portray them with all their sensitivities, as fallible people. I also saw a different personality to the one that is curated on the public stage. Some were incredibly humorous and entertaining. President Cyril Ramaphosa brought so much humour to his interview, relishing the nostalgia of recalling that period. Gayton McKenzie was full of hilarious anecdotes, and Ryan Coetzee and Siviwe Gwarube had me fully entertained with descriptions of their colleagues.
I am also a stickler for detail and the narrative, so I sought out details they often thought were nebulous. I wanted to know what wine John Steenhuisen took as a peace offering to Ramaphosa when the cabinet talks were on the rocks (it was a bottle of Nick & Forti’s Epicenter from Saronsberg Estate), and what was served for lunch at the Endhoven’s guest house on Westcliff Ridge when the ANC and DA met (it was a spread of Nando’s). This meant asking probing questions and going back to some to double and triple check which hotel basement they had met in, who exactly was present, what was the weather like that day? The minutia, the granular detail, all mattered to me.
Hopefully, all of this will contribute to this record of history, providing a vivid and accurate recollection for decades to come of this seminal period in South Africa’s story.
