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Radical Middle | 119<br />
after hours. On a Sunday morning I walked down from the shops<br />
with a loaf of bread and the newspapers. as Gael and I brought<br />
breakfast to the front stoep a cheery afrikaans teenager arrived<br />
at the gate, helping his dad with the rounds, and handed me<br />
our mail.<br />
fine, nice, there was my subscription copy of Frontline. I sent<br />
one to myself to monitor delivery; I hardly needed to read it. I<br />
took up the Sunday Times and saw a familiar short item in bold<br />
type under the heading “apology: Dr MG Buthelezi”.<br />
I started reading it, quite idly, taking it they’d paid the usual<br />
r5 000 as well. That was the media formula, though not made<br />
very public. Buthelezi demanded r20 000 and an apology. The<br />
offending organ offered r5 000 and an apology, and then it was<br />
all over until the next time. Obviously, the Sunday Times was on<br />
shaky ground, unlike the rock of truth that my case was about to<br />
rest on. But … what exactly were they apologising for? Something<br />
by someone called robinson… why did that ring a bell?<br />
The lightbulb lit up s-l-o-w-l-y. They had published the same<br />
piece I had. I couldn’t exactly complain about that, since the<br />
lifting rights belonged to them. But … first and foremost, how<br />
embarrassing! Them running my stuff was a doffing of the<br />
hat; me offering the same third-party material that they were<br />
offering was out! out! out! I think, I trust, I hope, this was the<br />
only time Frontline did any such thing.<br />
Second, how in the blazes could they apologise? What was<br />
to apologise for? Nauseatingly pompous? c’mon, he’s proving<br />
the truth by the very act of suing for it. Thuggish Impis? c’mon,<br />
that was national reality, universally known.<br />
The Sunday Times spoiled my breakfast, though there was a<br />
wryness in contemplating their 400 000 copies and my 10 000<br />
touching down simultaneously. But they could do what they<br />
wanted to do. We had to do what we had to do. five thousand<br />
or twenty, I didn’t have either but even if I did I wouldn’t<br />
have paid. My big worry was costs. I might forfeit lawyers but<br />
Buthelezi would not. If I lost I’d pay his costs.<br />
andy Duncan, Frontline’s honorary attorney and the
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