- The former chairman of the Naspers board, Ton Vosloo, has acknowledged that the media “acted in a mocking manner” against those who warned against racial segregation.
- His reflections were published in Die Burger after he treated a relativegraduation.
- Seven years ago, Media24, which is part of Naspers, apologized for its complicity in apartheid.
Why did the media act “so mockingly” against those who warned about the dangers of apartheid?
This is one of the questions that Ton Vosloo, former chairman of the board of Naspers, journalist and editor, asked in a letter published in Netwerk24 and Die Burger.
“These musings of an Afrikaans-speaking old man come too late. Why do we, in our fiery youth and with our prowess as seasoned journalists, act so mockingly against those who warned us of the dangers of enforced racial segregation?” he wrote.
“Why do we support the government of the time when it violated the Constitution by filling the Senate with staunch nationalists to remove the so-called mestizos from the electoral roll?
“Why do we just go along when Police and Justice Minister Jimmy Kruger, to the applause of a National Party audience, defiantly said that Steve Biko’s death at the hands of brutal security police left him cold?”
Vosloo, who started out as a junior reporter at the company, was reflecting after attending a relative’s graduation at the University of Cape Town.
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“I remember Afrikaner nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s; the prison sentence that was imposed if you advocated open universities. The persecution of Nusas [National Union of South African Students], the brand of forward-thinking students as communists or liberals. Those things are now forgotten and buried,” she wrote.
“While I was sitting there [at the graduation], I was ashamed of our beliefs and actions at that time. We shed so much unnecessary blood and inflict pain and punishment, instead of building a joint society as we experience it now, with all its flaws.
“It’s a different country now. If managed properly, we can also get to a normal level of acceptance without the sharp edges of racism.”
Nasionale Pers (National Press) was founded by JBM (Barry) Hertzog in Stellenbosch in 1915, shortly after founding the National Party, which later ruled the country and imposed a system of racial segregation.
When apartheid was abolished, the Afrikaans press refused to make a presentation to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), News24 previously reported.
However, more than 100 Afrikaans-speaking journalists subsequently submitted affidavits to the TRC in their individual capacity, acknowledging that the Afrikaans press had been instrumental in helping to maintain apartheid and should have accepted moral responsibility for what happened.
In 2015, the Khulumani Support Group asked Media24 and Naspers to create a fund for victims of gross human rights violations.
This after Media24’s then-CEO Esmare Weideman apologized for the company’s role in apartheid, acknowledging complicity in a “morally indefensible political regime and the painful way this played out in our newsrooms.” and meeting rooms.
He made the remarks at the celebration of 100 years of Naspers and Die Burger.
