When I did—to jump ahead, when I did the television reporting of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in ’96 through ’98, I moved with the Truth Commission wherever they went. I attended most sessions. It struck me how many of the perpetrators of gross human rights violations—how many of the men who came to ask for amnesty for murder torture, kidnapping looked like me, were my age, some of them had my name, and most came from similar circumstances as me. That could’ve been me, which helped me an awful lot to understand them a bit better and to stop despising them.
But it also reminded me that, A, I had the blessing of being a journalist so I saw a different reality, B, but I think I made choices, because that I think is always important. You’re not just a victim of what happened to you. You come at crucial points in your life to decide—where you decide, “Am I going to go the way that would be materially beneficial, or do I go the way that my conscience—that I can live with my conscience?” Now, what I can tell you I didn’t choose the side that made me materially well-off, as my bank manager would attest.
[The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up by the Government of National Unity in 1995 to investigate violence and human rights abuses committed under apartheid by all segments of society.]
That was the pattern. I was so frustrated with what was going on back home that I knew I had to leave Afrikaans journalism. It was very hard, and I think people find this very difficult to understand. Why would I, being very critical of the apartheid system, being very critical of the true nature of Afrikaner nationalism and beginning to realize the real nature of the apartheid system—why would I go and work for an Afrikaans newspaper in the first place?
[Afrikaners are the descendants of Dutch settlers who came to Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1652. During the Anglo-Boer Wars that spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, the Afrikaners were overtaken by the British Empire and agreed to live under British rule.]
Well, I must tell you when I finished university there was no choice. To go and work for an English language publication because they were more critical of the apartheid government was absolutely unthinkable, absolutely unthinkable. I am an Afrikaner. Why would I go and work for the English? And people forget that that was the mentality in the last 30—what, 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago. I never even considered it.
So now I got to the point that I should consider it, that I had to consider it. I had to find another way of being a journalist but living with my conscience.
It was so hard for me to do it that I decided, well, maybe I should leave the country. So went to live in Northern Ireland where Bobby Sands was starving himself to death at that point, and I thought a nice war or conflict somewhere else would be good for me. Then I thought, “Well, maybe I should be a communist. Maybe that’s a good idea.”
[Robert Gerard “Bobby” Sands (1954 – 1981) was a member of the Irish Republican Army who died in prison while on a hunger strike.]
So I went to live in East Berlin in ’83, and fortunately the life in the Democratic Republic of Germany cured me of communism for the rest of my life. And then I came back and I started working for the Sunday Times and for Business Day, only to realize that it’s the same agenda. They’re just using more polite words.
The Financial Mail and Sunday Times at the time represented the interests of big business, corporate interests in South Africa, mostly white at that stage, mostly English-speaking, the Anglo-American [corporation]. The Financial Mail and Sunday Times were owned by Anglo-American at the time. And the new code that I also didn’t get—I somehow never understood these subtle things—was, “We write negatively about apartheid, we make nasty comments about the National Party apartheid politicians, but we don’t want to change the system because it’s good for business.” And I didn’t get that note. I didn’t understand that. I was trying to live my conscience through my journalism. And so, yes, slightly more free and respectable in my journalism, but the ceiling had just lifted a little bit. It was the same thing.
[Anglo American LLC, now headquartered in the United Kingdom, is a multinational corporation founded in South Africa. It expanded from diamond mining into numerous other lines of business. The National Party, founded in 1914, ruled South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Its following included mostly Dutch-descended Afrikaners and English-speaking whites. The National Party was long dedicated to policies of apartheid and white supremacy. By the early 1990s, the party had moved toward sharing power with South Africa’s black majority.]
So I ended up being very frustrated once again and clashed with my editors on the stuff that I was writing.
Max du Preez is a South African journalist, author and documentary filmmaker. He was an anti-apartheid journalist who worked to expose government repression.
Born in 1951, Max du Preez grew up in Kroonstad, South Africa. Unlike many Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch colonial settlers who largely supported the apartheid government, his parents were open-minded toward integration of whites and non-whites.
After attending Stellenbosch University, an Afrikaner institution, du Preez began a career in journalism writing for Afrikaans and English language newspapers supportive of the apartheid government. Du Preez quickly became disenchanted by the South African media’s blatant political bias and abandoned his work in the mainstream media.
Du Preez became involved with anti-apartheid movements like the United Democratic Front. In 1988, he founded Vrye Weekblad, the first Afrikaans-language, anti-apartheid newspaper that offered alternative policy perspectives from mainstream media and was critical of the government. The government attempted to stifle the paper financially and legally by levying exorbitant registration fees and charging it with various infractions. In 1990, a member of the Civil Cooperation Bureau, a pro-apartheid group, bombed Vrye Weekblad’s headquarters. Vrye Weekblad survived, however, until 1994 when the government’s financial pressure finally forced its closure. Ironically, apartheid collapsed and South Africa transitioned to democracy later that same year.
During the transition, du Preez covered the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission on television, publicizing the body’s efforts to ease tension and promote a unified, post-apartheid South Africa.
Today, Du Preez remains a prominent South African columnist and media personality. He has received several awards including the Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism and been named the Yale Globalist International Journalist.
South Africa is a nation of almost 53 million on the southern tip of Africa. The nation has a unique multicultural character and is approximately 80 percent African and 10 percent European, with the remaining 10 percent being of mixed race or Asian heritage. These broad racial categories include a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups.
Although it has the largest economy on the continent, much of the nation remains in poverty and there is great economic disparity. Historically, the mining industry has played a key role in South Africa’s economy and it continues to remain an important industry today, alongside manufacturing, tourism, and financial services.
South Africa was first settled by non-natives in 1652, when the Dutch established an outpost in what would later become Cape Town. Soon after, British, French, and German settlers came to the area. The descendants of the original Dutch settlers became known as Afrikaners. Conflicts over land and power arose between the settling groups as well as between the settlers and the native people of the region. In 1910, Britain formally created the Union of South Africa as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.
Throughout South Africa’s history, non-whites were subjected to widespread discrimination. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the government passed a series of laws institutionalizing discrimination and segregation. In the 1948 elections, the National Party, which served as a platform for Afrikaner nationalism, gained power. The National Party program was centered on the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Supporters of apartheid argued that South Africa was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, “Coloured” or mixed-race, and Indian.
The white minority oppressed the African majority and other non-white groups. Black Africans were particularly disadvantaged in terms of education, housing, income, and health. Blacks were denied citizenship and not permitted to use the services and facilities accessible by the white minority. Many blacks were forced to relocate when their neighborhoods were declared “white.” A series of laws enacted in the 1950s further codified and expanded racial segregation. In part, the National Party justified its policies by branding its opponents as communists.
The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 to advocate for the rights of black South Africans. As apartheid expanded, the ANC and other groups used both nonviolent and violent actions to combat the government. The ANC and other groups were oppressed by the government, and many of their senior leaders were banned or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela, a prominent ANC leader, was imprisoned from 1962 to 1990.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement gained strength. Foreign governments and the international community isolated South Africa. International sanctions damaged the economy and helped erode domestic support for apartheid. Meanwhile, the end of the Cold War weakened the government’s claim that yielding power would lead to a communist takeover.
In 1990, the government of South Africa took its first steps toward ending apartheid when it ended a ban on certain political organizations including the ANC. Nelson Mandela and other opposition leaders were released from prison and apartheid legislation was repealed. F.W. de Klerk, President from 1989-1994, helped to broker this transition of South Africa from the apartheid-era to a multi-racial democracy. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
In 1994, South Africa held its first election that allowed all adults to vote, regardless of race. The ANC gained power and Nelson Mandela was elected president. South Africa enacted a liberal, democratic constitution, backed by a strong and independent judiciary. While the ANC has remained the strongest party, elections are vigorously contested and democratic safeguards are respected. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated abuses and crimes committed during the apartheid era.
Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized South Africa as “free” with an overall freedom rating of two, with one being the most free and seven being the least. The country also received ratings of two in political rights and civil liberties. However, in the 2013 Freedom of the Press report, the nation was categorized as “party free” due to government restrictions on the press and the prevalence of civil cases brought against journalists for libel.
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