Showing papers in "Transformation in 1988"

A black coup - inkatha and the sale of ilanga

Abstract: INTRODUCTION In April 1987 Ilanga became the only commercial publication in South Africa to be owned directly by a political party. It was bought from the giant publishing house, Argus, by Mandla Matla, an Inkatha-owned company under the directorship of its secretarygeneral, Oscar Dhlomo. All 21 editorial staffers refused to work as a result, demanding a reversal of the sale or transfers to other Argus publications. They were ordered to leave the building to make way for replacements. Describing the acquisition of Ilanga as a 'black coup' (Natal Mercury, 22.04.87), president of Inkatha, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, asked why black journalists were willing to work for newspapers owned by powerful white capitalist interests which were substantially controlled by white political parties, but not for an authentic newspaper for the black nation. The journalists responded with an advertisement in local English-language newspapers, after Ilanga refused to run it, explaining that it would be compromising to work for a single black political party in the current political situation in Natal. The need to be seen as independent in strife-torn areas of Natal is not merely a journalistic homily, but a safety-device. Ilanga journalists said the sale made them 'walking targets' in recurrent township violence. At the time three Ilanga journalists were in hiding after writing a series of articles about land transfers by Inkatha-linked town councillors {Daily News, 16.04.87). This context of township dissent, reflected in the journalists' dispute with management, is the background against which the take-over of Ilanga by Inkatha should be understood. Its first unofficial sortee into mass media had been with The Nation, distributed in Inkatha's stronghold, the rural areas and which, after state harassment and financial problems, closed down 'indefinitely' in 1980 (Mare and Hamilton, 1987:175; Tomaselli et al, 1987:51). With 58% of Durban Africans sampled reading Ilanga and 45% of Africans sampled in Pietermaritzburg, one might surmise that the take-over oi Ilanga is part of Inkatha attempts to develop or secure its contested urban base.