Max du Preez | |
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 Du Preez delivering the Barry Streek Memorial Lecture in Cape Town in 2017 | |
| Born | 3 March 1951 |
| Occupations | |
Max du Preez (born 10 March 1951) is a South African author, columnist and documentary filmmaker and was the founding editor of Vrye Weekblad . Vrye Weekblad Online or Vrye Weekblad II was launched on 5 April 2019 [2] again with Max du Preez as editor. [3]
Max du Preez is a writer, columnist and documentary filmmaker. Between 1982 and 1988, Du Preez was the Political Correspondent for various publications including Beeld , Financial Mail , Sunday Times and Business Day . He won the Nat Nakasa Award for fearless reporting in 2008.
Du Preez founded the Vrye Weekblad, an Afrikaans-language weekly newspaper, in November 1988 and its progressive successor Vrye Weekblad Online in 2019. During his tenure as editor-in-chief, the newspaper's offices were bombed and Du Preez received death threats as a result of the paper's opposition to apartheid. [4]
He was sentenced to six months in jail for quoting Joe Slovo, the then leader of the South African Communist Party and a banned person. [5]
The Vrye Weekblad broke the news of the Vlakplaas Death Squads and the role of its commander, Dirk Coetzee.
In 1999, Du Preez was dismissed by the SABC from his position as the executive editor of Special Assignment , an investigative television show, after he objected when a documentary was barred from being shown. Though initially it was simply stated that his contract would not be renewed, the SABC later said he had been dismissed for gross insubordination. [6]
The decision led to a public campaign to call for his reinstatement [7] and the handling by the SABC led to complaints to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa. [8] The incident was seen as symptomatic of a public broadcaster voluntarily transforming itself into a state propaganda apparatus. [9]
Rumours that then-President Thabo Mbeki was a philanderer [10] were controversially brought to light by a comment Du Preez made on a national radio show in 2001. During a discussion on the lack of examination of the private life of Mbeki, Du Preez said: "He is seen as a womaniser. It is publicly known and I think we should start talking about this, that the president has this kind of personal life. I'm not saying it's scandalous. He's a womaniser." [11]
The remark was subsequently carried on the front page of The Citizen , leading to multiple complaints, apologies [12] and a statement by a provincial branch of the African National Congress that it accepted "declaration of war by Max du Preez and his political masters who have unleashed an unprecedented vitriol against the ANC, its leadership, the President and its supporters." [13]
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.
Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the son of Chief Sikelewu Mbeki and Johanna Mahala and also the father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki. He was a leader of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned (1963–1987) on charges of terrorism and treason, together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders, for their role in the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was sometimes mentioned by his nickname "Oom Gov".
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan names Nxamalala and Msholozi. Zuma was a former anti-apartheid activist, member of uMkhonto weSizwe, and president of the African National Congress (ANC) from 2007 to 2017.
The following lists events that happened during 1978 in South Africa.
Nomaindiya Mfeketo is a South African politician who served as South African Ambassador to the United States from 2020 to 2023, Minister of Human Settlements from 2018 to 2019, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa from 2009 to 2014, and mayor of Cape Town from 1998 to 2000 and again from 2002 to 2006.
Otta Helene Maree, known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician. She has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. From 2009 until 2019, she was the Premier of the Western Cape province for two five-year terms, and a member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. She served as Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance from 2007 to 2015 and as Mayor of Cape Town from 2006 to 2009.
Solomon Johannes "Sampie" Terreblanche was a South African academic economist and writer, author of numerous economics books and was most famous for his History of Inequality in South Africa, 1652–2002. He was Professor emeritus of Economics at Stellenbosch University, where he built a reputation as a lecturer in History of economic thought, Economic history, the Economy of South Africa, and economic systems.
Vrye Weekblad is a progressive Afrikaans national weekly newspaper that was launched in November 1988 and forced to close in 28 May 1994, then relaunched as an online newspaper in 2019. The paper was noted for its anti-apartheid stance making it a notable outlier in the Afrikaans language media of the 1980s and early 1990s. The paper was initially driven into bankruptcy by the legal costs of defending its charge that South African Police General Lothar Neethling had supplied poison to security police to kill activists.
South Africa since 1994 transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule. The election of 1994 resulted in a change in government with the African National Congress (ANC) coming to power. The ANC retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. Children born during this period are known as the born-free generation, and those aged eighteen or older, were able to vote for the first time in 2014.
Peter Sexford Magubane OMSS was a South African photographer and anti-apartheid activist. He was also the personal photographer of President Nelson Mandela.
Dirk Coetzee was co-founder and commander of the covert South African Security Police unit based at Vlakplaas. He and his colleagues were involved in a number of extrajudicial killings including that of Griffiths Mxenge. Coetzee publicly revealed the existence of the Vlakplaas death squads in 1989, making himself a target of a failed assassination attempt.
The 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held in Polokwane, Limpopo, from 16 to 20 December 2007. At the conference, Jacob Zuma and his supporters were elected to the party's top leadership and National Executive Committee (NEC), dealing a significant defeat to national President Thabo Mbeki, who had sought a third term in the ANC presidency. The conference was a precursor to the general election of 2009, which the ANC was extremely likely to win and which did indeed lead to Zuma's ascension to the presidency of South Africa. Mbeki was prohibited from serving a third term as national President but, if re-elected ANC President, could likely have leveraged that office to select his successor.
General Lothar Paul Neethling was chief deputy commissioner (second-in-command) of the South African Police in the apartheid era.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) was an intelligence agency of the Republic of South Africa that replaced the older Bureau of State Security (BOSS) in 1980. Associated with the Apartheid era in South Africa, it was replaced on 1 January 1995 by the South African Secret Service and the National Intelligence Agency with the passage of the Intelligence Act (1994).
Jacques Pauw is a South African investigative journalist who was an executive producer of the Special Assignment current affairs programme on SABC. Pauw was a founding member and assistant editor of the anti-apartheid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad. He began his television career in 1994, specializing in documentaries around the African continent.
Special Assignment is an investigative current affairs programme on SABC. Since August 1998 the programme has covered news events in South Africa and beyond, often disclosing criminal activities and atrocities unknown to the public. Ashraf Garda is the shows current host. The Show is screened weekly on SABC 3 at 21:30 GMT.
The African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of the Republic of South Africa since 1994. The ANC was founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein and is the oldest liberation movement in Africa.
Charlene Leonora Smith is a South African journalist, published author of 14 books, and is an authorized biographer of Nobel Peace Prize winner, and former South African President, Nelson Mandela. She is a communications and marketing consultant, and writing teacher, who lives and works in the United States.
The Dakar Conference was a historic conference between members of the Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa (IDASA) and the African National Congress (ANC). It was held in Dakar, Senegal between 9 and 12 July 1987. The conference discussed topics such as strategies for bringing fundamental change in South Africa, national unity, structures of the government and the future of the economy in a free South Africa. The IDASA delegation from South Africa, participated in the conference in their private capacity and would later be condemned by the South African government for meeting a banned organization. The future indirect result of the conference was South African government talks with Nelson Mandela and his eventual meeting with P. W. Botha in 1989.
Michael James Minaar Louw was a former Director-General of the South African National Intelligence Service (NIS) and after the 1994 South African elections, was appointed as head of the new South African Secret Service. He played a key role as a representative of the South African government in the secret negotiations held between them and the ANC in exile which brought about the unbanning of the latter in 1990 and the release of Nelson Mandela.
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