RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

34 | denis beckett
as we did so I began to think that the end-point might be a long
way further than mere simplifying of the Iberias.
at the same time, I got edgy about World’s self-conscious
blackness, not only because of the deception but also because
it was time to pop out of the blackness/whiteness prison. all
newspapers were either “black” or “white”, or white papers
with black “extra” editions, which was the worst sham of the
lot, often presenting differently coloured readers with a message
not only different but contradictory.
I wrote to John, charles and Percy, proposing to de-blacken
Weekend World, recasting it as a plain low-brow people’s paper
– mainly addressed at black people, yes, but admitting nonblacks,
too, to the human race, rather than explicitly cutting
them out. John called a meeting, in his upstairs office. (We
three were housed below, at the engine room; John had a
glorious view of the factory roof.) It was 5.00, beer and canapes.
We talked into the night. This was the kind of meeting that
gives the word a good name. everyone shifted view. Percy had
wanted to kill me, charles to commit me to an asylum. I had
wanted to start tomorrow. We all moved. charles was the one
who said the obvious: too much was going on right now, let’s
reconvene in January 1978, some eight months ahead. We left
that meeting as blood brothers.
That was april ‘77. In June charles transferred to the
Daily News in Durban. John announced that he would not be
replaced. Now, you say, “Of course”. In June 1977 you would
have said “Wow!” an argus non-white newspaper did not have
an editorial director in the shadow behind the editor. This was
major.
On a Tuesday morning in July, at Weekend World’s start-ofthe-week
conference-cum-bull-session, everybody was as usual
bemoaning the absence of order and leadership in Soweto. a
reporter named Willie Mahloane said why didn’t we do something
about it. The others chimed in – Sophie Tema, specialist in
human-interest stories, Mothobi Mutloatse, later managing
director of Skotaville Press, Duma Ndlovu, young and keen and