Varsity
70 celebrating
years
The official student newspaper of the university of cape town
7 August 2012
Volume 71: Edition 8
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Haffajee regrets removing The Spear Cai Nebe
S
outh African journalist and City Press editor Ferial Haffajee was the guest speaker at the UCT’s annual TB Davie Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, August 1st. Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price and Chair of the Academic Freedom Committee, Jacques Rousseau introduced Haffajee as “one of South Africa’s media luminaries” to a packed Beattie Lecture Theatre. Haffajee’s speech, entitled “Creeping Censorship and the Spearing of Freedom”, revolved largely around her decisions to display the controversial Brett Murray painting The Spear, an image showing President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed, on the City Press website next to a review of an art exhibition. Haffajee had it removed after the ANC called for a boycott of the newspaper and amid threats of violence made against City Press. Media censorship is becoming increasingly prevalent in South Africa, said Haffajee, citing the boycotting, banning and ostracising of controversial artworks such as the The Spear. Haffajee said she regretted taking down the artwork. While stressing the importance of maintaining freedom of expression in the arts and the media, Haffajee described herself as a “freedomof-expression fundamentalist”. She went on to explain that, “reporting has been a quest for freedom for me.” Haffajee warned about the dangers of corruption affecting the media. She cited the frequent calls for boycotting artworks and the defacing of The Spear, also mentioning then-Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwane’s snub of a government-sponsored women’s art exhibition in 2010, for showing images that were “immoral” and “pornographic”. Bodies such as the Film and Publication Board use their positions to censor the media actively, “to satisfy political masters,”
Image: Uthman Quick SPEARED – City Press Editor Ferial Haffajee expressed regret at her decision to remove the controversial “The Spear” from the City Press website under pressure from people and organisations who viewed its depiction of President Zuma’s genitals as indecent. added Haffajee. “Achieving freedom took many decades and thousands of lives, but it takes very, very little to kill it.” As a result of this, “I feel my freedom being eviscerated,” said Haffajee. The editor also spoke of the effect that the transformation of power in South Africa since Apartheid has had on the media and described the country being led by “people who are shadows of the people who led us into freedom”. “I have changed – I am no longer a child of the Mandela generation and more a fundamentalist for freedom of expression ... I would never have taken it [Murray’s painting] down knowing what I do now,” Haffajee said, saying that it is becoming more
important for freedom of expression not to be undermined.
“We [South Africans] take our democracy extremely seriously...” At the end of her speech, Haffajee expressed optimism, saying: “We [South Africans] take our democracy extremely seriously and I know people are going to ensure its longevity.” She also played short clips of Mandela’s words of wisdom at his inauguration: “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land experiences the
oppression of one by another,” and the national anthem. Haffajee’s final words, “I have no worries about the state of our freedom 18 years on from apartheid,” drew a standing ovation from the audience. Palesa Hoye, a first-year PPE student, said it was important to hear how the political aspect of The Spear affected Haffajee’s perspective. “I think there has definitely been an increase in censorship and she touched on how we as a society and the media are scrutinised. But we should not scrap the good things we have achieved over the last 18 years of democracy just because questions have been asked as to whether our state is becoming more repressive.”
Siphosethu Hote, a first-year Geometrics student, said the talk was insightful. “Before the talk it was easy to judge her. Now I see how she was put in tough space. I think she made a good decision to save her paper at the expense of removing The Spear. She’s definitely a remarkable woman.” Hote added that while Haffajee’s talk was well-balanced, she would have liked to have more detail about the story surrounding The Spear. When asked about student reactions to freedom of expression and censorship on campuses such as UCT’s, Haffajee praised those who “had taken it on and made it their own.”
in this issue
One does not simply
PREDICT THE WEATHER ON UPPER CAMPUS
Error in Stats results
page 3
Memed to death
page 6
Female Firsts
pages 8–9
Gig guide
page 13
Olympics coverage page 14
Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy.