Thebe Mabanga In July this year when South Africa lost the right to host the 2006 World Cup to Germany, the Mail & Guardian lamented the development as a “sad reflection on Europe”. In one of its best editorials, the paper lambasted the European mentality, which it noted, was “bereft of generosity and redolent with racism”. Political editor Howard Barrell, who takes over as editor on January 1 2001, wrote that editorial.
Making the announcement in Johannesburg on Thursday and thus bringing an end to seven weeks of speculation, M&G Media CEO Govin Reddy said: “I am delighted to have Howard as the next editor of the M&G. Howard is one of South Africa’s most experienced and talented journalists and has a profound grasp of the country’s socio-political issues.” Reddy expressed confidence in Barrell’s ability to help the paper continue to attract new readers and maintain its reputation as an unrivalled voice of independence and top-quality journalism.
Barrell (47) takes over from Phillip van Niekerk, who steps down after almost four years at the helm to take up a senior position with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC.
Barrell brings to the position experience accumulated over 25 years of reporting, researching and writing on Southern African politics.
“I am humbled by this appointment and look forward to the challenge,” said Barrell of his latest career move. He emphasised the need to safeguard the M&G brand while broadening its appeal.
“I intend to edit the paper as before. By that I mean in the same way as has been done by Phillip [van Niekerk], and founding editors Irwin Manoim and Anton Harber, all of whom I am honoured to follow.” Barrell added that “as an editor I hope to work with and through other people, but more importantly I intend to help bring forward new voices”.
Barrell’s grasp of socio-political issues was honed over a period that stretches back to 1975, when he began his career as a reporter at The Star. During the Eighties, he was among the first people to report on the underground activities of the liberation movements . He did much of this reporting during his five-year term as editor of a small independent news agency, Agenda Press Services, which he describes as “half legitimate news agency, half African National Congress intelligence and propaganda project”. His term there ended in 1988, which proved to be a watershed in his political and intellectual life.
It was in this year, having been admitted to Oxford University at master’s level on the basis of published writings, that he drifted away from the ANC politically.
“My own Berlin Wall came down about six months before the real thing,” he says. “I began examining assumptions at the core of ANC revolutionary thought.”
Influenced by Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies and Isaiah Berlin’s works, he drifted to being a “reluctant liberal of sorts”. In 1994 Barrell received his doctorate from Oxford. His thesis was on the ANC.
In 1971 he objected to military service on political grounds. This was followed by active involvement after being recruited to the ANC’s department of security and intelligence in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1982. The service was curtailed when, as a member of the ANC in exile, Barrell decided to return to the classroom. The decision was taken on the advice of his then commander and now Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ronnie Kasrils.
Barrell is frequently accused of being anti-ANC. “I think some people who support the ANC mistake criticism for hostility towards the party,” he says. “When I criticise it is, paradoxically, out of a sense of loyalty.”
Barrell takes over from a man he whom has known for more than 20 years. He recollects how, while trout fishing in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, he tried to recruit Van Niekerk to the ANC. The plan was that Van Niekerk would send a birthday card if he accepted and a sympathy card if he declined. Van Niekerk was at the time a left-wing labour reporter and, on the basis of principle, sent his condolences. They had to wait 14 years to work together, but probably never imagined that they would one day team up to continue a great tradition in South African journalism. Over to you, Dr Barrell.