/ 21 February 1997

‘No longer NP mouthpieces’

Die Burger and Beeld appear to have shifted their support away from the NP, reflecting a wider rift in the Afrikaner community. Gustav Thiel and Jacquie Golding-Duffy report

IT has long been a truism that no National Party leader has survived an attack by Die Burger. As the editorial onslaught against former president and NP leader FW de Klerk continues, it remains to be seen whether the principle holds true

While the attacks on De Klerk by the Afrikaans language press expose the worsening broedertwis (fight among brothers) in the party and increasing divisions among party supporters, they are also highlighting the widening gulf between the two mainstream Afrikaans language dailies themselves.

Though their editors deny it, Die Burger and Beeld, both Nasionale Pers (Naspers) newspapers, are growing apart, following their readers as they retreat into two camps: the more conservative old guard NP and the new, more liberal NP.

Neither paper lends the NP the kind of support the party enjoyed in the past, to some extent a reflection of readers’ growing disillusionment with the party.

Die Burger editor Ebbe Dommisse this week conceded that his paper was once the ”official mouthpiece of the party in the Cape Province”. With its stalwart support of Afrikaner nationalism, the newspaper enjoyed a close relationship with the NP from the early days when former editor DF Malan, who became prime minister in 1948, nurtured the bond between the newspaper and NP politics.

The practice is no longer condoned, says Dommisse, adding that neither Die Burger nor Beeld officially support any party.

”We will, however, support certain principles of various parties from time to time and will judge this according to the merit of each case. We are independent newspapers and thus owe no allegiance to any political party,” he said.

Dommisse’s view is echoed by Naspers’s executive chair Ton Vosloo, who has been quoted as saying that the newspaper group has adopted a ”value approach” towards party politics, and that Afrikaans newspapers have learnt that being too close to a political organisation was no longer ”expedient”.

Editorial staff members, however, are regularly reminded in internal correspondence that ”Die Burger should do everything in its power to prevent the African National Congress from making South Africa a one party state” – an admonishment that springs not from loyalty to the NP but a general fear of what the future may bring.

The mainstream Afrikaans language newspapers have been shying away from the NP for a while now with some moving to the right of the party and others to the left.

The Sunday paper Rapport (owned by Perskor and Naspers) has always been seen as the most conservative of the three Afrikaans mainstream broadsheets, Beeld as by far the most liberal. Die Burger is somewhere between the two.

Harald Pakendorf, former editor of the now- defunct Die Vaderland, says that while Die Burger has always been closely aligned to the NP, it ”has of late become less vociferously NP”.

Pakendorf says it is clear that Die Burger is shifting away from being an NP mouthpiece, reflecting the loss of faith by its NP-supporting Afrikaner readers. But ”despite its move away from the NP, it continues to fight the ANC,” Pakendorf says.

Beeld editor Johan de Wet denied that Beeld and Die Burger are divided about continued support of De Klerk as leader of the NP. The most recent debate about the future of De Klerk started after a speech he made in London at a conference of Andersen Consulting about ”the management of change”.

Die Burger published the complete speech on February 5 and said it contained an explanation by De Klerk about how he ”relinquished power in South Africa”.

Die Burger editor Dommisse’s editorial read: ”The speech was upsetting, to put it mildly, possibly more so for the followers than for the leader who seemed pained by it … If De Klerk had delivered the speech, where he acknowledges relinquishing the Afrikaners’ right to sovereignty, at the time of the negotiations, it should be doubted whether he would have received a mandate to continue.”

In apparent response, Beeld published the following: ”Plans to continue white supremacy at Kempton Park could not succeed … Beeld believes the time is ripe for Afrikaners to change gear and to move forward into the future.”

The paper also said political power was something of the past for the Afrikaner, but that this did not mean the Afrikaner people should feel like strangers in their own country.

Although both papers deny it on the record, sources in both newsrooms believe Beeld’s hoofredaksie (editorial management) supports De Klerk’s continued leadership; while Die Burger favours Western Cape NP leader Hernus Kriel.

Furthermore, sources claim that this could lead to a major rift in Naspers ranks, although Dommisse remains adamant that mutual respect for editorial integrity between the papers would preclude any rift.