Besides gifting us with the depravity of the Jacob Zuma presidency, the notorious ANC Polokwane conference in 2007 also produced two other bounties meant to ease him seamlessly into power. The Scorpions had to be killed; and the media had to be brought firmly under his thumb.
Zuma was determined to use his dominance to settle old scores. He knew that, left to their own devices, his two nemeses could continue to be the bane of his presidency. With the ANC’s lopsided parliamentary majority, the Scorpions stood no chance. It was summarily and gleefully dispatched. With the constitution in its corner, the media, however, turned out not to be easy prey. It avoided the noose — and not for the first time.
Friday marks the 45th anniversary of so-called Black Wednesday, when in one fell swoop on October 19 1977, the government banned 19 mostly black consciousness organisations such as the SA Students Organisation (Saso), Black People's Convention (BPC), Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) and many others.
Also banned were The World and Weekend World newspapers, and Pro Veritate, a publication produced by Dr Beyers Naudé’s Christian Institute. The bannings were accompanied by nationwide mass arrests of activists and journalists, including editors, under section 10 of the Internal Security Act, which gave the minister of justice powers to detain anyone deemed to be a threat to the state for an indefinite period and without trial. Suddenly the black community, for decades shorn of political rights, found themselves without a voice — their organisations banned and leaders detained.
Seared in one’s memory is a greying black-and-white photograph of a despondent Percy Qoboza, editor of The World, being led from his newspaper offices in Industria, Johannesburg, to prison by white security branch policemen. Qoboza spent five months at Modderbee Prison. Many other journalists were detained with him. There was no charge, they were never asked to plead. Their sin was simply practising their craft as journalists. It is fashionable these days for political upstarts to dismiss the media as a pesky nuisance that has no place in our democracy. They should be careful what they wish for; they may just get it.
... a month after Biko’s death, the government came down with a sledgehammer, hoping, in its wisdom, to crush black resistance once and for all
Of course events of October 1977 did not happen in a vacuum. A year earlier Soweto had erupted in student unrest over the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools. The violence and boycotts spread throughout the country and that instability lasted for many years.
In that vortex Steve Biko died, killed by his police captors in the most callous fashion. The country was on edge, and a month after Biko’s death, the government came down with a sledgehammer, hoping, in its wisdom, to crush black resistance once and for all. The press had had to contend with many restrictions under apartheid — press freedom cannot prosper in a state of unfreedom. But the events of October 19 rank as probably the most audacious and blatant attack on the freedom of the press since Lord Charles Somerset banned the SA Commercial Advertiser in the 1800s. But it was no coincidence that it was largely the black press and black journalists who were targeted. They expressed the views and pain of the black community. It was their duty to do so. That's what the media does.
We were naive to think our new rulers would act differently or better than the National Party. After all, we thought, they had been fighting for freedom. The nirvana has turned into a nightmare. It was Joe Thloloe, venerable sage of our craft whose 80th birthday we celebrate this year, who very early on warned that freedom fighters in power didn't mean we should lower our guard. Still drunk from our newfound freedom, we thought he was a bit melodramatic. But power, whatever it's hue or ideology, is insatiable. It does not only corrupt, it brooks no opposition or competition.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, one man said. The assault on the press launched in Polokwane only failed because the ANC would have had to amend the constitution if it were to pass muster. But the ANC could dare to tamper with such a sacred tradition because there's not much appreciation of the role the media plays in society. SA would have been in a worse were it not for the media. Even the opposition has little time for it. Journalists are harangued and harassed daily simply for daring to do their job.
A few years ago, then ANC Youth League president Julius Malema scolded and expelled a BBC reporter from a press conference at Luthuli house. Instead of walking out in sympathy, the assembled media simply laughed. They thought it was funny. Right now, reporter Karyn Maughan is in the dock in a prosecution brought privately by Zuma. Being first with the story is what good journalists do. But it is outrageous that a man who has shown scant regard for the law is allowed to use it to persecute a journalist doing her job. Even more disgraceful is that a sizeable number are cheering him on.
The fight for press freedom is not a battle that should be left to the media alone. It's a national endeavour. Without a free media democracy becomes meaningless. Show me a country without media freedom and I'll show you a dictatorship. It's no coincidence that North Korea and China have no free media. There's no democracy. The government decides what you can say, read or listen to — a pretty bleak picture.
Press freedom is not a privilege. It's a right enshrined in our constitution. We should treasure and defend it.
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