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South Africa: Ferial Haffajee: South Africa's First Woman Newspaper Editor

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

26 January 2004

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interview

Johannesburg — She has a fine mind and a brilliant, dimpled smile. And now, Ferial Haffajee really has something to smile about. The 36 year old journalist has been appointed the new editor of South Africa's weekly Mail and Guardian - making her the first female editor of a major newspaper in her country.

The M&G, as it is known in the industry, is an investigative, campaigning newspaper, born during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in 1985. It appears on the newsstands in South Africa every Friday.

Haffajee has come full circle, starting at the M&G as a journalist trainee in 1991. She takes up her new job as editor on 1 February. Her appointment comes in an important year for South Africa, which is celebrating its 10th democratic anniversary and preparing for the country's third non-racial elections. In Johannesburg, Ferial Haffajee outlined her plans and ambitions for the Mail and Guardian in conversation with AllAfrica's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton.

Congratulations Ferial Haffajee, tell us how you first became associated with the Mail and Guardian?

I watched it with starry eyes from 1985, when Anton Harber, the founding editor - then 27 years old - would come to Wits University, where I was studying, and talk about this amazing paper, which all of us read, because it was the only one providing news that we could relate to. And I thought, "Oh it would be lovely to work there one day".

Next year the Mail and Guardian will be 20 years old. It was started in 1985 when the Rand Daily Mail closed down, because it was becoming too vociferously anti-apartheid and its owners were not comfortable with that, so they closed the paper down.

Its journalists then pooled their retrenchment savings to start a brave, young newspaper. They got all their friends to put in money to bring it out and then they would do the most delightful prescription drives. I remember friends of mine used to go around delivering the paper on a Friday morning.

So when did the dream become a reality for you?

My mother really wanted me to be a lawyer, like all mums do I guess. I studied law for about two years and was not very good at it at all. After I finished my BA degree, I applied to what was then the Weekly Mail to get onto their training programme. And I am very, very happy that I did do so, that was in 1991.

You belong to the Mail and Guardian family and now you have become the first woman editor of this newspaper and the first woman editor of a leading newspaper in South African history -

Most wonderful. I couldn't believe it Thursday when I heard that news. I didn't really see it as an historic event. For me personally, it was a complete dream come true, because whenever I've written down my goals - and I have done that - I said I would love to be the M&G's editor one day.

I thought that working in its senior team was as far as I would get, so being able to be its editor is absolutely the pinnacle for me.

So would you say this something you have been working towards all your professional life as a journalist?

Definitely. I have turned down other things and I thought that when I became the M&G's opinion page editor and a senior writer, I was happy with that and happy to be in the senior team. I thought I'd grow old in that position. To now be editor, like I said, is just wonderful. It's more than I had hoped for.

And, of course, for women and women journalists in South Africa, this is a first; Ferial Haffajee a black woman editor of a major newspaper and it all comes in the year of the tenth anniversary of independence, liberation, freedom, democracy -

All of that I suppose. It comes in a momentous year. It comes at a difficult time for the media, so I'm very grateful and excited that my appointment has been so roundly celebrated. I've learned from some wonderful women, like Caroline Southey at the Financial Mail, which is where I worked just before. It's a sister of the Financial Times in London, half owned by the FT. I learned from Caroline, I learned economics, business and how to lead as a woman, because I think there are some special skills involved.

So certainly it's most wonderful. The M&G is now recognised as a major, national newspaper. In 1985, it was called alternative, now it's become mainstream. So it is a major feather in my cap.

South Africa is celebrating you, the first woman and the first black woman to head a major newspaper. But have there been petty jealousies, and might there be those who are stabbing you in the back?

In my first week since I found out I'd been appointed editor, I've been completely overwhelmed by the levels of love, solidarity, friendship and good wishes. I don't doubt that this is a difficult industry and that this might occur. I haven't heard any of it. And I just feel completely surrounded by support and love. If I feel anything, it's that an enormous responsibility rests on our shoulders now.

What difference does a woman editor make, if anything, to a newspaper? What do you bring to the Mail and Guardian that's different?

I have been asked it a lot and I don't want my answer to come off glibly, because that's not how it's meant. I think editors have a certain universal set of skills. You've got to be a good journalist; you've got to be decisive, creative, etc. I think I've got those qualities.

But as a female editor, in South Africa, I will bring a different touch to the M&G. I will want to use our investigative resources to look at some pretty serious gender problems we have - like the rate of rape and the rate of sexual violence.

And I hope that we will be able to profile the many young, black or coloured women who are coming up through the ranks, be able to show a different form of leadership in the way that I represent, I think, a different shape of leadership.

When you look at South Africa, it is by all accounts - not only just here in Africa - a country that champions women. When we look at the South African parliament and the number of women MPs in the national assembly, when you look at the government there are not just token women ministers, but impressive women ministers making a difference -

I do not think that I would have been able to get this job, be appointed to it and be seen as fit to get it if it wasn't for where the country is. So, in many senses, I am a fruit of South Africa's ten years of democracy, because I think what the African National Congress has been very successful at doing is to put women into very senior positions. It is the only party with a very firm quota for women's representation - amongst the highest on the continent as you say. And our cabinet is about 40 percent women.

I think after the next elections, what you will see is a very concerted effort to take women who are now deputy ministers into ministerial positions. I'm not going to put money on it, but I think we may even have a female deputy president.

And, eventually, a woman as president of South Africa?

I have no doubt in my mind, whether it's going to be Winnie Madikizela Mandela or Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma we don't know. But I think we definitely will in the future.

You're an all-round journalist, Ferial Haffajee. You've dabbled in all sorts. I'm told print is your first love, but your experience is much wider. You've worked in other parts of the media, haven't you?

I worked in radio and in television. In radio I was told I had a squeaky little voice, so I'm not an Ofeibea! But I loved it, because of its speed and it taught me an appreciation for how people speak and to be honest to what they say and to capture how they say it, so that was great.

TV I didn't enjoy, because it's such a fleeting - powerful I know - but an extremely fleeting medium. What it did give me is a sense of is pictures and how things look and I hope to import some of those skills into print.

What are the downsides to being a woman editor? What are the pitfalls that you will have to watch out for?

Personally, people have been concerned that I'm quite quiet and soft. So I would have to learn to be decisive and occasionally take unpopular decisions. I think that in our country while there is that focus on women's leadership, it remains pretty patriarchal and I have no doubt that there are the glass ceilings we are going to have to break through.

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