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So . @Ms_ZamaNdlovu got me thinking about my time at . @BusinessLiveSA , a long time ago when she tweeted about Brian Molefe yesterday. So I’m putting this in more detail in my next book but I’ll thread some of it here.
Over the years I’ve reflected a lot on the people who really, really hated me that time. I’m actually not angry at all at them because I think I understand the pathology behind the anger directed at me. We all wanted a good narrative about black leadership, black government
I think for them it was too hard to believe negative stories about black leaders in a world that always expected them to fail and be quite rogue actually. I wanted the same but I think our respective antennae were wired a little differently.
I think they got to a place where they just didn’t want to hear that a popular, talented and hugely successful black man like Brian Molefe did wrong. I can understand. It’s depressing, actually. It’s demoralizing. We need black role models all the time.
Precisely because of the racist stereotypes about how corrupt and inept black people are when they govern, I was always wary of people who would validate that racism. I also wanted to show that black people can also lead and govern well, and succeed.
For me the tragedy of a Brian Molefe is that he was a legend in the making. He could have been anything he wanted, that guy. He could be CEO anywhere, any industry. He was that talented. I was angry that he would reduce himself and the aspirations of black youth like that.
Therefore when he called in to 702 to justify a crooked nuclear deal I had no choice but to deal with him decisively. As Oliver Tambo said, we must tell each other the truth even if it’s the same as what the “enemy” says about us.
Meanwhile I was aware of the pressure of expectation on the “first black” editor of Business Day. My work involved bringing into our pages young black intellectuals and experts to show that we could also think clearly, and articulate complex issues like the white columnists
So I changed the columnist roster from weekly to fortnightly. Then I went after some people and had others knock on the door. The absolutely brilliant Dr. Nomalanga Mkhize, . @Ms_ZamaNdlovu , . @XhantiPayi , Trudi Makhaya , . @WandileSihlobo They all made me so proud. Excellence!!
In the newsroom we had Phakamisa Ndzamela, Ntsakisi Maswanganyi etc. They all wrote great commentary on very important issues. Readers loved them. Phakamisa has a knack for finding successful black businesspeople. He went hunting for them all the time.
But none of that suggested that when our people did wrong we had to be silent. We had a Republic to be obligated to. The price of silence is too high. So, however popular, a Brian has to meet his reckoning. . @amaBhungane and . @mailandguardian had done thorough stories before
It wasn’t just the black writers and columnists either. The Business Day newsroom was full of really, really great colleagues. I loved them all. They never made me doubt myself. Always supportive. All of them. It was a secure space for me. Very secure. I could do my job.
But above all, there was principle. There is always principle. You know when I asked . @KellyJoBluen to be our columnist, I knew she was “trouble”. Good trouble. But trouble. She is brilliant and has zero f&cks to give. And I worried about Israeli lobby. She could be brutal.
But her knowledge and moral clarity on the matters she wrote about were more important. I couldn’t compromise on that. And you know what? Nothing happened. Some readers loved her and the usual suspects hated her, but I was fine with her. She was going nowhere.
The point to all of this is, it’s always about how we respond to our circumstances. Sometimes the truth is too much, sometimes convenient. Sometimes we hide from it. Often we won’t the same things but we differ on how to get there.
In the end each of us has to choose our own path. I chose mine. The likes of Brian Molefe also chose his. And in such circumstances I guess everyone borrows from Fidel Castro Ruiz’s words: History Will Absolve Me. Time always tells. Now we’re here.
