Qwelane won't apologise

2008-03-05 22:52

Johannesburg - Columnist Jon Qwelane has refused to apologise for calling a former colleague who objected to a blacks-only event a "coconut".

"I made it clear that I won't apologise for using the word coconut," he said in Johannesburg at a public forum organised by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Wednesday.

Qwelane, a former Talk Radio 702 host, made the remark at a recent off-the-record briefing organised by the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ).

The frank and at times heated SAHRC forum focused on exclusive organisations.

The commission hosted the forum after receiving a complaint from Talk Radio 702 and 94.7 Highveld Stereo.

This came after its white political reporter, Stephen Grootes, was asked to leave the FBJ meeting, which was by invitation only to black, Indian and coloured journalists.

It submitted that while it did not object to the existence of the FBJ, it believes the exclusion of white journalists is not in line with the Constitution, the Equality Act and international law.

Destructive behaviour

Yusuf Abramjee, group head of news, said at the meeting that Qwelane called him and talk show host Kieno Kammies "coconuts" when they objected to its racial exclusivity and they also lodged a complaint saying it was discriminatory and hurtful.

"We can see no conceivable basis on which the conduct of the FBJ is justifiable," he said. Their "destructive" behaviour has caused divisions in the journalistic fraternity, Abramjee said.

FBJ chair, Abbey Makoe, said: "To say the FBJ has no place in South Africa is to deny that black journalists have the right to association and organisation."

He said issues in journalism were not limited to job descriptions and newsroom positions.

"They extend to psychological, spiritual, cultural aspects of reconstruction of their (black journalists') own rehumanisation," said Makoe.

Black journalists wanted to be able to submit a black view without white sanction and their rights were protected by the Constitution.

He said they knew that Jacob Zuma's presence at the briefing would be a "magnet of sorts", attracting journalists who would not otherwise have attended.

Members of the FBJ could discuss whether they wanted to admit white colleagues, he said.

"... It (the complaint) smacks of paternalistic arrogance and undermines the right to independence of thought and action," he said. "... This is about black journalists, their rights, their fears, their concerns."

He added, "I challenge anybody to tell us what we are doing is illegal."

Pencil test?

During the discussion, AfriForum spokesperson Kallie Kriel questioned whether the FBJ would be conducting a pencil test - a demeaning apartheid method of classification by running a pencil through a person's hair to determine their race - to ascertain whether FBJ members were black, considering that there was no longer legislation determining race.

An outraged member of the audience shouted "for 50 years you knew how to classify us, now it becomes academic?"

Qwelane said that the definition of "black" was a "very cerebral thing" - it was not necessarily the colour of a person's skin, but their state of mind. He believed this included Indian, coloured and African people "minus the coconuts".

To which Kammies responded: "If black is a state of mind, then what stops white people from also being able to identify?"

Writer and land rights activist Andile Mngxitama, speaking in his personal capacity, said white people did not need organisations for their own interests because they were already in organisations and making decisions for themselves.

It's not racism

To nods and murmurs of agreement, he said there could be no such thing as racism against white people, because the term originated in the violence white people perpetrated against black slaves.

"If there is a new form of oppression where white people are oppressed, let's not call it racism, let's call it something else."

Tempers flared briefly between Department of Arts and Culture spokesperson Sandile Memela and Sowetan editor Thabo Leshilo when Memela said he could have been an editor at the Sunday World, but was forced out of the newsroom because he was "uncontrollable".

He said there was no room for journalists in South Africa who were "authentically black" and there were black editors who suppressed black self-determination and identity.

He said some newsrooms looked like "bantustans" with black journalists doing the "running around" and the decision makers being white.

To which Leshilo countered that Memela was being "economical with the truth" about the circumstances of his departure.

Memela replied "Let's take it offline then," before order was restored.

The forum ended with the announcement that South Africa's 2010 soccer chief, Irvin Khoza, had apologised unreservedly in a statement for using the word "kaffir" towards a black journalist.

Khoza - chair of the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee - said he had decided on this action after seeing the University of Free State racist video on the news.

... "I therefore unreservedly and without qualification, repeat my apology for using the K-word," Khoza said.

- SAPA