Madiba and media freedom

Mandela respected the role of the media in a just society, but today's rulers risk squandering this legacy

Nelson Mandela had a soft spot for journalists. He took their advice on several occasions during South Africa's liberation struggle and his famous presidency, always accepting their sometimes disturbing right to reveal the truth.
When facing the death penalty for treason in 1964, he asked British journalist Anthony Sampson to help him write the speech he gave from the dock in the tense moments before being sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thirty years on, at a private lunch to celebrate the 80th birthday of his friend Yusuf Cachalia in 1995, another British hack, John Carlin, was astonished to watch Madiba raise a glass in his honour for what the president hailed as the Englishman's journalistic excellence. Some of us around the table later assumed the toast endorsed a rumour that it was Carlin who suggested Mandela wear a matching number 6 jersey alongside Springbok captain Francois Pienaar during the Rugby World Cup that year, although Carlin makes no such claim in his book about that momentous event.
A year or two later, another British journalist, David Beresford, got an equally surprising accolade from Madiba after writing an editorial in the Mail & Guardian recommending that the revered former freedom fighter serve a single term in the presidency as an example to despotic African leaders who tended to linger far too long at the helm. Following a subsequent speech on the subject, Mandela was asked why he was so determined to step down after only one five-year term. He replied jauntily: "The Mail & Guardian told me to."
Apart from having the grace to acknowledge those who contributed to his acclaimed ideas, Mandela had the wisdom to realize that he could not muzzle the media. Having tried on one misguided occasion to silence a journalist, the late Ruth Bhengu of the Sowetan, who told me the story, Mandela (not being a man to feign infallibility) recognized his mistake and went out of his way to endorse the reporter's integrity later on.
Ruth was a stroppy individual but a first-class reporter. Shortly after Madiba's release from prison, she was sent by her newsdesk to the original Mandela home in Vilikazi Street, Soweto, where Winnie had just fallen out with one of her dodgy football team chums and was noisily throwing the woman's belongings out of a garden room. The street was littered with papers, a Lionel Richie cheque fluttering in the breeze, while Ruth was scribbling in her notebook - when Mandela suddenly appeared beside her. Thrilled to meet him yet mindful of her deadline, the reporter exchanged a few pleasantries before getting back to work.
But after Madiba approached Ruth a second time to say that Ma Winnie was the mother of the nation engaged in a private matter that ought not to be reported, Ruth muttered that she was simply doing her job - and legged it. On arrival at the Sowetan's offices to file her story, however, she was diverted to the boardroom, where big boss Aggrey Klaaste told her he'd had a request for "co-operation" from the "old man".
Ruth flew into a rage. "You call this a newspaper," she yelled, so vehemently reminding the embarrassed executives of their professional undertakings that they glanced collectively at their watches, grabbed their jackets and ushered her back to the newsroom, where she wrote the story.
Years afterwards, at another Cachalia birthday bash, this time to celebrate Amina's 70th in 2000, I was seated opposite Madiba when he asked if Ruth Bhengu was among the 100 guests. She was, he having requested that she be invited – as he had done on the occasion when he saluted John Carlin. I went to get Ruth, who was warmly, albeit privately, congratulated on her journalistic integrity by the former president.
Then, at the time of Mbeki's disastrous Aids denialism, Mandela engaged with concerned journalists in the realisation that he had not worked exhaustively on the Aids front while president and could make up for it by challenging Mbeki's position alongside civil society and the media - a difficult call for a loyal ANC leader in the increasingly autocratic circumstances of Mbeki's rule. (Mbeki eventually reacted furiously to Mandela's criticism).
Of course, the ANC had historically taken full advantage not only of worldwide opposition to apartheid but the Western media's repugnance of racist South Africa. Arguably, the liberation movement owed as much to the support it received from international journalists as to the revolutionary skills of its armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe. Mandela readily acknowledged the media's role in helping his organization defeat tyranny, though many in today's government appear to fear and even despise journalists rather than recognizing their contribution to a just society.
Recollections of Madiba's respect for journalists on the eve of the 20th anniversary of his release from 27 years of imprisonment come at a time when "South Africa faces a challenging year as far as media freedom is concerned," according to one of the country's foremost experts in media law, Dario Milo. Legislation that could drastically restrict the freedom of the press is on the cards, including the Protection of Information Bill, which will regulate state secrets, and the Protection of Personal Information Bill, which does not adequately exempt the media from the obligation to process personal information in accordance with restrictive principles.
Yet freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution. Slapping subpoenas on free-to-air channel e.tv and two of its reporters in breach of the sacrosanct principle protecting journalistic sources is a blatant negation of our hard-won liberation. A recent threat by the ANC Youth League in Mpumalanga that "our machine guns are ready" to use against City Press in the event of the newspaper's continued exposure of an ANCYL leader's wrongdoings is another ugly symptom of the intolerance facing investigative journalism in this country.

Sadly, today's rulers risk squandering the Mandela legacy of embracing journalists in the interests of a healthy democracy.