Enrolment of first year students in journalism leaps up by 30% in 1979. Why?
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"Possibly because the Information scandal has made journalism seem like a glamorous profession." At least this is the opinion of Journalism staff who compare the jump in numbers with a similar phenomenon at journalism schools in the United States after Watergate.
Of course, the increase may also be linked to the growing reputation of the Rhodes department, the only one of its kind at an English-language university in South Africa.
Bulletin, 1979 (2): 3
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Politics
& radicalisation
-ANTHONY GIFFARD, HoD 1970-1978
In the 70s and 80s
Vice-chancellor of Rhodes, James Hyslop (1963-1975) espoused the notion of an apolitical university, yet was confronted with political issues, both internal and external, at every turn. The very action of trying to create a politically neutral university resulted in the repression of students and staff who were considered activists by the administration because of their political views or actions [i].
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The Department of Journalism and Media Studies, with its growing ethnic and cultural diversity and recruiting of black graduates that was seen as subversive, turned towards a critical paradigm of the role of the department's curriculum and became a megaphone and site of resistance for opposing the unjust apartheid agenda on the university campus. Les Switzer, recruited as a journalism lecturer in 1973, explains Rhodes as a university that remained suspicious of the role of the Journalism Department for its politicised agenda and the political identity it would radically come to represent. It was a fear in the University administration for the capacity of the department to mobilise students or ignite political challenging and confrontation, and therefore "had to be closely monitored," said Les Switzer [ii].
Student activism was ignited and active in the years of and following the Soweto uprising, which catalysed a change of direction in the journalism department [iii].
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Between 1976 - 1982, local events in Grahamstown and Eastern Cape provoked an extreme cognisance in staff and students of the police brutality of the apartheid state:
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18 August 1977. Steve Biko is arrested outside Grahamstown. He later dies by police brutality.
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October 1977. Eighteen Black Consciousness organisations are banned (including SASO), and 47 Black Consciousness organisations are arrested.
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Hundreds more people would be arrested and detained over the next year under the Terrorism and Internal Security Acts.
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December 1977. Nineteen known to have died in detention. Some died under suspicious circumstances in Port Elizabeth. The Grahamstown Supreme Court dealt with and heard the cases of deaths in detention.
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Rhodes students planned a memorial service to pay tribute to Steve Biko in September 1978. The Radical Society (Radsoc) at Rhodes organised it.
The memorial service continued with interference by the Security Branch, which included a raid at the students digs of Guy Berger, a journalism student at the time. Berger recalls his time as a journalism student as contributing to his critical engagement with the worst of apartheid, and an assembly of a stash of forbidden reading matter [iv].
As a member of Radsoc, as well as the founder of Delta, Berger's home was searched by the police and publications confiscated [v]. [SIDE NOTE: Delta was a student society founded by Berger that published an irregular newspaper for black readership called the Grahamstown Voice.]
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In order to infiltrate inner circles of students and their participation in activism, police offered some students lucrative monthly stipends (that could pay a university education) to spy on the activities of the more radical students and societies. On 13 October 1978 Rhodeo reports "Student Informer?" citing Albert van Oortmerssen, a first year journalism student, who came forward and reported that he had been approached by the police in East London to be an informant at Rhodes [vi].
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It was this context of apartheid threat and infiltration into the higher education space that surged localised radicalisation and mass mobitsation which began reducing the silent majority of students, who had generally been conservative and indifferent, and created a student body that became more liberal in outlook.
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This permeated into the practice and integrity of journalism students and lecturers, the more radical of whom felt called to respond to the violent and brutal events at the hand of the apartheid state.
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In July 1980 Guy Berger, journalism lecturer at the time, and Devanderen Pillay and Ian Mgijima, both journalism students, were arrested for possessing banned material and accused of ANC participation. After seven months in detention, subjected to the security police's torture methods and duress, their widely publicised six-week trial took place in Port Elizabeth.
"Leaving a huge pile of unmarked essays for colleagues like Les Switzer and Gavin Stewart to catch up on. It wasn't producing media that got me into trouble, but consuming it," explains Berger [vii].
In 1980 and 1981 Grahamstown exploded with an influx of township violence, the result of which would be a precursor to the force and brutality that would erupt in the mid 1980s. Workers went on strike and thousands of children boycotted the schools; many died preaching peace or refusing to participate. In armed vehicles, white policemen were sent to townships. The result was more deaths from police brutality [viii]. At this time Inquiry reports that members of the South African Defence Force executed covert operations at night [ix].
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-LES SWITZER, (acting) HoD 1976, HOD 1979-1982
One of Rhodes' first black students, Devan Pillay, who registered for Journalism in 1980, recalls that "Being housed together... had the effect of creating a strong sense of solidarity amongst black students, and accelerated the political conscientisation of new students."
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-DEVAN PILLAY, student in the 80s
1982
Clipping, front page of Issue, Spring 1982.
"The implications of the internal security act (74 of 1982) for the South African journalist" by J.G. Grogan [x].
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99 pages. That is the length of the Act in the English and Afrikaans texts. The Act which tightened the common law of the public's right to learn of information relating to public affairs or of alternative opinions as well as the common law of free speech. It laid this out through two methods:
1) granted power to restrict by administrative regulation of the activities of individuals, organisations and publications.
2) set out a comprehensive list of criminal offence which were triable by the courts.
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The offences created by the Act prohibited the circulation and debate of a a range of ideas relating to alternative social, political and social policies for South Africa. What bolstered this was the discretion granted to the Minister to act against individuals, associations and publications which enabled the government to narrow the sphere of public debate that was deemed lawful.
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Grogan (1982: 7) explains that "the primary danger for civil liberties and press freedom inherent in this power is that the arena of lawful public debate will shrink as threats to the security of the South African state as presently constituted are deemed by the authorities to become more urgent."
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"Journ lecturer released", Rhodeo, 13 April 1983, p. 5 [xi].
1985 CONTEXT
The year 1985 signaled the beginning of the end of apartheid governance in South Africa. Following an upsurge of violent and non-violent resistance to the system of apartheid and Nationalist government, on 21 July 1985 the government declared a State of Emergency in 36 magisterial districts in the Eastern Cape and PWV (now Gauteng) areas. This was the first State of Emergency since 1960, and gave the police powers to detain, impose curfews and control the media and, a few days later, to control funerals. The United Democratic Front (UDF) was hit hard, with leaders imprisoned, networks collapsing and people feeling disillusioned [xii]. Also impacted was censorship on the student press; having to drop numerous articles or blot out whole paragraphs and sentences. This moment of draconian law enforcement against the Black, Coloured and Indian population was a pivotal moment in the struggle against apartheid.
Mass campus protests and peaceful demonstrations in 1985 against police brutality on campus revived mass protest on campus. The attack of the police on students and staff on university property for protesting the banning of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) resulted in the mass mobilization of over 1500 students and staff. Their following protest condemning the police's attack on the peaceful demonstration put Rhodes on the map for finally joining the 'open' universities in protesting against the government's policies.
Botha announced on March 5 1986 that he would lift the Emergency. It was made law two days later on 7 March 1986. However, the lifting of the Emergency was short-lived and four days before the 10th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, a country-wide State of Emergency was declared [xiii].
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"WEAR A YELLOW RIBBON." DO YOU KNOW OR REMEMBER THE SYMBOLISM OF THE YELLOW RIBBON DURING 1986? DID YOU WEAR A YELLOW RIBBON?
"Wear a yellow ribbon", Rhodeo, August 1986, p. 7 [xiv].
The 1986 Emergency covered the entire national space with much stricter brutality; curfews imposed, political funerals restricted as well as news crews banned from filming in areas of political unrest. The result was severe lack of national and international news of police crackdown and brutality as they attempted to contain the retaliation of social unrest.
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An estimated 26,000 people were detained between June 1986 and June 1987 [xiii].
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The Commissioner of Police could impose restrictions on media coverage of the Emergency and the names of detained people could not be disclosed [xii]. Among the thousands detained were some journalism students and staff from Rhodes.
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Members of the Rhodes Community detained:
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Bridget Hilton-Barber- journalism student
Melissa de Villiers- journalism student
Karen Thorne - journalism student
Roelien Theron- journalism student
Colm Allen
Dave Sandi
Ntseki Sandi
Andre Roux
Louise Vale
Priscilla Hall
Jean Burgess
Julie Scott
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Other people from the university were also detained but information was not given about their names.
It was in this context of the traumatic 80s that journalists were forced to reassess their role in South African society. "The fear of being "mau-maued" by township mobs was on factor," [xv]. Addison explains that the realisation that journalists could not count on universal appreciation amongst the oppressed had a sobering effect on the belief that the press was the only real opposition to white nationalist tyranny.
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Addison explains that on the one hand, journalism was identified with activism in support of the democratic movement, but on the other hand, journalists in the corporate media stuck to journalistic notions of non-involvement and objectivity, and gave their allegiance to the non-racial, essentially white, SA Union of Journalists (SAUJ). The Emergencies made it clear that reflecting the horror of security action in the townships and country's borders were impossible with unrelenting state persecution. On top of this a semi-statutory Media Council had been set up to enforce the Newspaper Press Union's Code of Conduct that ensured that the press did not incite racial feelings or disrupt law and order [xvii]. Furthermore, it was forbidden to expose what was occurring in unrest areas, prisons or mental hospitals.
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"By means of coercion and co-operation, successive nationalist Prime Ministers had disciplined the press and self-censorship was the rule. Bannings, detentions, and the cultural boycott shook the conviction that society could not do without journalists," [xviii].
Research surveys were sent out by the department between 1983 and 1986 to graduates (1970 to 1982) that centered around the B. Journ degree and alumni career directions. But in the 'population group' classification of the survey it is worth noting some students' answers as it illustrates a particular political stance that is indicative of this time and context. Below are some of these responses:
SOURCES
i / Greyling, S.A. 2007. Rhodes University During the Segregation and Apartheid Eras, 1933 - 1990. Master of Arts of Rhodes University thesis. ​​​​
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ii / Switzer in Du Toit, J. E. 2013. Journalism Education in Universities: The Global and Local Migration of Concepts between Practice and Discipline. p. 209. Doctoral dissertation at University of Stellenbosch. Retrieved on 6 Feburary 2016 from http://scholar.sun.ac.za
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iii / Grocott's Mail. 2004. Special Edition. July, 3rd.
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iv / Grocott's Mail. 2004. Special Edition. July, 3rd. p. 1.
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v / Greyling, 2007: 134.
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vi / "Student Informer?", Rhodeo, 13 October, 1978. p. 3.
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vii / Grocott's Mail, 2004: 1.
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viii / Greyling, 2007.
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ix / Inquiry, published by the Department of Journalism. Rhodes University. Cory Library. Protected periodicals. 1980 and 1981.
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x / Grogan, J.G. 1982. The implications of the internal security act (74 of 1982) for the South African journalist. Department of Journalism and Media Studies.
xi / "Rhodeo", Rhodeo, 13 April 1983 p. 2.
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xii / Partial State of Emergency, July 1985. South African History Online. Retrieved on 25 August 2017 from http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/partial-state-emergency-july-1985.
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xiii / "States of Emergency in South Africa: the 1960s and the 1980s", South African History Online. Retrieved on 7 July 2017 from https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/state-emergency-south-africa-1960-and-1980s
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xiv / "Wear a yellow ribbon", Rhodeo, August 1986, p. 7.
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xv / Addison, G. C. 1993. The watchdog role of development journalism, in:
Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in South Africa, Autumn.
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xvi / Addison, G. C. 1993: 1.
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xvii / Hachten, W. A., Giffard, A. C. 1984. The Press and Apartheid: Repression and Propaganda in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan: UK.
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xviii / Addison, G. C. 1993. The watchdog role of development journalism, in:
Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in South Africa, Autumn: 1.