Johnny Johnson, who has died aged 79, did not have to make The Citizen profitable — it was bankrolled by the then National Party government to carry out its mission to propagate the apartheid policies of the NP and smash the liberal Rand Daily Mail in the process.
The Citizen, set up in 1976, was a product of the Information Scandal in which the government sought to buy the Rand Daily Mail in an effort to counter the English press’s liberal views. Eventually, along with other expenditure in local and international propaganda, the information department started The Citizen.
The task of becoming profitable, the bugbear of all daily newspapers in this country, could never have been part of his conditions of employment, as the paper under him never made any money. The Citizen’s first editor, Martin Spring, had lasted only a matter of weeks.
Johnson carried out his task of being a government mouthpiece with great zeal and R32-million of taxpayers’ money.
Down the road in Johannesburg, the Rand Daily Mail’s owners had fired Raymond Louw as editor of the paper, fearful of the threat The Citizen posed, making Johnson’s task that much easier.
Part of the Information scandal disclosures (eventually published by the Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Express) showed that many of the government-supporting organisations quoted as sources in his newspaper, were sponsored by the government.
Johnson was never distinguished by any obvious sense of enlightenment. He was rightwing, supported the “verkramp” end of the now defunct United Party, and supported the NP eventually when very few Jews of Johnson’s generation (the Holocaust generation) would have supported it. The party had supported the Germans and had not allowed Jews to join it for many years.
His tenure at the Sunday Express was marked by his inability to see and support the changes coming in the United Party when the “Young Turks” split. He left the newspaper embittered and angry when he was not given the editorship of the Sunday Times as he believed he was owed.
His role as an employer was marked by eccentricities now legendary. The stories told include vulgar behaviour, forcing reporters to eat their words (literally) and behaviour that would generally be frowned upon these days.
But he had been a president of the journalists’ union, The Southern African Society of Journalists (SASJ) and felt an affinity for it over the years. His employers in the Afrikaans press did not allow journalists to belong to the SASJ and that was a policy he followed. But after each annual wage agreement between the English press and the SASJ he would call the SASJ office to find out the details of the agreement so that he could keep vaguely in line with it. Despite his eccentric employment practices, there are many journalists who got their start under his tutelage and were employed by him when other employers declined. Despite his political views, this included several black journalists.
Johnson, who was editor of the Sunday Express from 1961 to 1974 and editor of The Citizen from 1976 to 1998, began his relationship with the press at the age of 14, when he began working to help support his family. He attended night classes to matriculate.
He began work as a copy runner in 1938 at the Daily Express and went on to work as a reporter and sub-editor at a number of publications. He worked at the Sunday Express, the Rand Daily Mail, The Star and the Sunday Times before becoming editor of the Sunday Express.
Johnson was an idiosyncratic figure, known for his complete dedication to his work and his acerbic temper. However, he was also considered a kind and loyal man by those who knew him closely.
“He was a very kind man but could be a real maniac when he was angry,” says friend and former colleague Patrick Weech.
He became renowned for his ability to perform any of the numerous tasks in the print industry. “He was an incredible news editor. He did everything,” says Weech.
Johnson, who died in his sleep of cancer, leaves behind his wife, Cecily, three daughters and five grandchildren.
He retired in 1998, but, says Weech, he remained a “news junkie” until his death.
Nobody would argue that he did not know his craft or understand his readers. But in a South Africa in which inhumanity and injustices abounded, an editor who turned an active blind eye to this was no journalist.
He did the job of Lord Haw Haw, and did it better than anyone.
Pat Sidley and news reporters
Meyer Albert “Johnny” Johnson, born 1923, died January 15 2003