INSIGHT

Phylicia Oppelt

IN A Letter to the Editor yesterday, a reader wanted to know the Daily Dispatch’s position on the newly resuscitated Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) that caused all the trouble last week when ANC president Jacob Zuma addressed the organisation and said he had no problem excluding white journalists from the event.

Several white journalists took offence to this, one going as far as reporting the forum to the Human Rights Commission.

In the process, the forum gained much attention, becoming the subject of blogs and media debates.

But why pay attention to a forum that clearly does not carry the support of a majority of black journalists and is largely Johannesburg-based?

From conversations with Johannesburg colleagues, it appears that the forum is being led by SABC political editor Abbey Makoe, Sandile Memela, who is a Dispatch columnist and full-time spokesperson for the Minister of Arts and Culture, and Duma Ndlovu, a playwright and actor.

So what could the driving forces be that have compelled these gentlemen to breathe life into an organisation that, at best, invited a speaker to talk for about an hour, followed by – excuse my language – a piss-up?

I know, because I attended some of the old forum’s meetings in Johannesburg in the late 1990s.

But here we have Makoe, best remembered for his inglorious and toadying pre-Polokwane interview with President Thabo Mbeki, as the spokesperson for the forum.

Makoe, when confronted on the exclusion of white journalists, said it would be their right to call together a similar race-based organisation. What nonsense. White journalists gathering to the exclusion of blacks would have people like Makoe screeching about racism from the rooftop of the Human Rights Commission offices.

And Memela and Ndlovu, while contributing to the media, are not working journalists. So what are they doing, passing themselves off as such?

But leaving the three Blacketeers aside, what are the pressing problems that beset my black colleagues? Too little money, too little skills, too little room for advancement, too little benefits, too few job opportunities?

Most newspapers across this country are edited by black South Africans; senior positions across the different media platforms are occupied by black journalists.

Take Makoe, for example. Here is a black senior manager who reports to a black manager (head of SABC news, Snuki Zikalala), who reports to a black manager (SABC CEO Dali Mpofu), who reports to a black woman, SABC Board chairperson Kanyisiwe Mkonza – whose nomination is confirmed by South Africa’s über-black manager, President Thabo Mbeki.

Is Makoe then suggesting that these managers have done little to invest in black journalists at the SABC?

Here in Caxton Street in East London, we struggle to attract talented black political journalists because they come at a premium – just like in the late 1990s when black finance reporters could write their own salaries in their contracts.

When I attended FBJ meetings in the 1990s, I felt a need for this kind of gathering. Then, the world had changed for us. Instead of being allocated township beats, black reporters were being plucked out of obscurity and fast-tracked to super-stardom as newspaper owners realised that a changed country needed to be reflected in the newspaper hierarchy. And so many black journalists advanced, to mostly muted criticism from their white counterparts.

Older white journalists complained privately about black reporters not being taught the basics, about being fast-tracked so quickly for management that they were leap-frogging over more deserving colleagues. There was some truth in these complaints, of course.

The reality was that black journalists had been kept out of the management structures of newspaper companies – in very much the same way that their counterparts in other industries had been ignored because of the politics of our country.

But, let’s not romanticise that old forum. Speakers used the platform to peddle their wares – Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad scolded journalists about their craft while Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi campaigned for his party. Inevitably, drinks and networking followed – perhaps the main reason for many members’ attendance.

A forum started in 1996 is vastly different to one relaunched in 2008. As The Sowetan’s editor-in-chief, Thabo Leshilo, said last week: black journalists are not being discriminated against as a group.

If this new forum had members such as Leshilo, former ThisDay editor Justice Malala, Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee, I’d start being concerned about the state of our industry. Until then, I’ll treat the FBJ with the seriousness it deserves – none.

Phylicia Oppelt is editor of the Daily Dispatch. Tomorrow SA Institute of Race Relations president Professor Sipho Seepe argues that to solve the race problem one has to understand the perspective of the victim