South Africa March 2006 |
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| Exiled journalists in SA, (Zimbabwe Situation, 2006-03-05):-Precisely at 3.00am, Emmanuel Matandamaviri (not his real name) a former senior journalist with a weekly newspaper in Zimbabwe jumps out of his blankets and heads towards a common bathroom in downtown Johannesburg. After taking a five-minute bath he takes out a set of rumpled clothes from a Shangaan bag and dresses for the day. Emmanuel has no breakfast. Clutching newspaper clippings of his previously published stories and certificates in a plastic bag, he set off to Sandton on foot to submit his credentials to potential employers. His journey takes him through Hillbrow, Parktown, Forest Town and Rosebank. He could have faxed or e-mailed his material, but he did not have any money to pay for Internet access. "I have to walk to organizations and media houses looking for freelancing chances. My skills have deteriorated but I can't give up my profession easily. The problem in South Africa is that even odd jobs are scarce. Each day I walk an average of 35km. "Life has become unbearable and there is nowhere to go to look for help. Journalists unlike other refugees do not have an organisation representing them. At every organisation we go for assistance we are told they don't deal with professionals," said Emmanuel. He has only R1 to buy "magwinya" (deep fried buns) at the end of the day. He passes the day pacifying his empty stomach with his saliva. After Sandton, he hopes to proceed to Auckland Park. At some organisations he is told to phone first for an appointment with the editor. In other newsrooms he is told to come back the next day. When night falls, he is still in Rosebank and he opts to join vagrants. The next day an editor of a news agency asks him to do a story about a demonstration in Pretoria against a doctor who is giving illegal vitamin tablets to HIV/AIDS patients. He is requested to fax or e-mail the story when he is done. But Emmanuel does not have the money to go to Pretoria or to e-mail, so yet another chance of a job slips through. "It's always the case, its either you can't fulfil the tasks you are given or there is nothing to be offered at the moment. How am I expected to cover the Pretoria story when I don't even have anything to feed my stomach?" said Emmanuel. From the day one he ran away from Robert Mugabe's repressive media laws, life has been rough and he has been reduced to a life of destitution. Emmanuel says: "After victimisation by the militia youth brigade and Central Intelligence Organization for my articles which were anti-Mugabe, like many Zimbabwean I decided to flee the country to South Africa for my own security and seek employment for survival with high hopes of getting a decent job. But twelve months down the line all my hopes have been reduced to misery". For Amphious Panda, a journalist who walked almost thousand kilometres to SA from Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000 to escape persecution, life is worse. "Good" is the only English word he knew. A further disadvantage is that he is unfamiliar with the computer equipment used in SA newsrooms: at home, he wrote on old typewriters. "Even now I have problem in writing in English and I need someone to translate from French if I am to write a good story. The writing style is quite different, you need time and training to adapt to the situation," said Panta. Emmanuel's situation is typical for exiled journalists who are finding it hard to break into the mainstream media in South Africa. "South Africa is not sympathetic to journalists like any other nationals, it doesn't matter how experienced you are as a journalist as long as you are not connected you will never get the job, menial jobs yes. Exiled journalists have been reduced to a life of destitution. Some fine journalists end up discarding their thriving careers after getting frustrated in a foreign land. Although it is hard to establish exact figures, it seems that there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of exiled journalists in South Africa in recent years. Foreign journalists who take refuge in South Africa are usually experienced professionals. They suffer from the usual problems refugees face, but with the added difficulty of finding work in the mainstream media that is already flooded with local journalists. However, exiled journalists have now founded the Cross Border Journalists' Association, which intends to address their problems. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |