She thinks long and hard when asked who her mentor is, frowns, shakes her head and finally replies: “I do not have a mentor. No, I don’t have one.”
Ruda Landman (52), who has anchored M-Net’s Carte Blanche actuality programme since its inception in August 1988, has no misconceptions about the pitfalls of her job, even though the show has accumulated more than 80 local and international awards for television excellence.
“I afraid that, coming from television, I have to say that pictures can lie,” says Landman.
“I mean a picture says more than a thousand words— So how far do you go to exploit that? That answer’s not easy. Once you’ve got it on camera in our case, it’s very hard to then sit in front of the editing desk and argue ethics when it’s obviously so sexy.
“I don’t want to tell my viewers what I think they should think. I prefer to just put it out there and let them make up their minds,” she adds.
Landman started her career as a newspaper journalist in 1977 and moved on to radio, magazines and television newsreading before being appointed co-anchor of the country’s first actuality television programme, Netwerk.
After giving birth to her son, Johannes, in December 1986 she worked as a freelance television reporter before joining Carte Blanche two years later. She is also a director of Media24 and chairwoman of the board of Helpmekaar, the Johannesburg high school her son attends.
Growing up in the Afrikaner landscape of Upington in the Northern Cape and graduating in languages at the University of Stellenbosch, Landman says a life-changing moment for her was covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to investigate apartheid atrocities.
“I had to integrate new and frightening information of my own people into my view of my family and friends. I went in with the attitude: ‘Rather let sleeping dogs lie’. But a few days later I was a fierce defender of the commission.”
Her interview with the head of the TRC, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, counts as one of her most memorable moments in journalism.
“He told these amazingly wonderful stories, like how he went up to a policeman in London to ask him directions. Not because he did not know the directions, just to hear a policeman call him ‘sir’.”
“Tutu was different— but normally the most wonderful interviews are ordinary people who trust you enough to share their story. The well-known people have said it all.”
One of her favourite stories was covering the mountain gorillas of the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda – more than half the world’s population of mountain gorillas live here – who amazingly survived and even increased their population despite a bloody war raging in their country.
“That’s the story people always talk about. For me, it was just about walking through that breath-taking forest. I love trees, to me they are spiritual. I was so small in that space,” Landman recalls.
She comes across as professional, down-to-earth and very private, a right she will fiercely defend.
“There’s a difference between public interest and public curiosity— Yes, I am in the public face, but why can’t you draw a line?”
Ruda’s most memorable story
Rwanda gorillas.
Worst story
Talking to the last executioner just before the death penalty was abolished – “It was frightening. It made my skin crawl.”
Who would you most like to interview?
Ordinary people.
Who do you regard as your mentor?
No one.
Career Highlights
- Co-anchor of South Africa’s first live actuality TV programme Netwerk.
- Joins Carte Blanche as co-anchor in 1988. Throughout its 18-year history, the show has accumulated more than 80 local and international awards for excellence in television.
- Director of Media24.
- Publishes her own book entitled Off Camera – The Stories Behind Carte Blanche in 2003.