In conversation with a veteran: Ferial Haffajee

To the average South African citizen, journalism may be a field reserved for writers with a vulturous appetite for a scoop and a moral constitution as flexible as a R10 note. Whether or not that opinion holds water depends on who you ask, but consensus cannot eclipse the shining beacon that Ferial Haffajee represents in an oft-uncertain and misunderstood industry. She is a household name in a profession that rarely produces them, and a veteran who has truly earned the status. Meet Ferial Haffajee.

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Ferial Haffajee has served as editor-in-chief at the Mail & Guardian and City Press, and currently serves as associate editor for the Daily Maverick. PHOTO: Supplied/Daily Maverick

“I guess that’s why I love what I do; there is no average day,” says Ferial Haffajee, currently associate editor at the Daily Maverick. “When I was growing up [in Bosmont, Johannesburg], because we were quite poor, I used to go work in clothing shops, like go to town and look for jobs…I think the thing that most compelled me to work hard was that I hated the sameness of those days. Some people thrive on routine, and I’m not one of those people,” she says, with matter-of-factness.

Her favourite days, instead, entail “walking in many worlds and doing a range of stories”. She describes, with child-like passion, having covered Gwede Mantashe’s appearance at the Zondo Commission for nine hours the previous day, immediately followed by “a helluva lot of research into vaccines” for the rest of that day.

Haffajee has a certain, idiosyncratic tendency to punctuate the ends of her answers with the word “hey”, said in an upward cadence with a gentle authority that communicates: “I am done, for now.”

So what gets someone like Ferial Haffajee excited to wake up in the morning? True to her journalistic form, she broaches the question from an alternative angle. “I suppose what doesn’t get me excited at the moment…is I really find this factionalism in the ANC very tiring and uninteresting.” Instead, she describes being more compelled by Covid-19, due to its all-encompassing effects.

She then segues to her work within journalistic innovation, an endeavour that sees her developing new journalistic products that she hopes will disseminate meaningful news to new audiences. With sincere gusto in her voice, she declares this current work as “completely enthralling”.

Speaking to the nature of her professionalism, Charl du Plessis, a media lawyer who worked for Haffajee as a legal reporter during her tenure as editor at City Press, describes her as inspirational, supportive and demanding in equal measure.

“She would praise superb work and when you smashed it, you would feel like a million bucks. On the other hand, if you were performing sub-optimally, you were definitely going to know about it,” says Du Plessis.

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Ferial Haffajee was born on 20 February 1967 and grew up in Bosmont, Johannesburg. She attended the University of the Witwatersrand. Illustration: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi 

The journalist’s identity politics, then and now

She reminisces on a time when she was a young, aspiring journalist, with no higher hopes than to write for the Mail & Guardian, and one day serve as its editor-in-chief. “That was always my dream, probably since I was at university…it was my love place,” she says.

But times have certainly changed since Haffajee was a student, and in reflecting on post-apartheid South Africa’s cultural shifts, she makes very blunt observations on where journalism finds itself currently.

“I suppose that there’s been a very deep cultural shift; so whereas in the past I used to feel that we, as young black people, were outsiders, fighting for a way in…a shift has happened now where, for me, its very much a space owned by black people…they are the pace setters of what journalism is today.”

She is aware of her critics on this particular front, but maintains that the shift to black media hegemony has been “vital” and proven “richer and more inclusive”.

Haffajee identifies as a black person, for many another contentious layer to her public persona in modern times. She specifies that this identification is within the definitional framework established by Steve Biko, whereby all persons of colour affected by white oppression ought to collectivise under the umbrella term of ‘black’. 

Here too, she is not oblivious to her detractors: “Those of us who call ourselves black in the Biko sense, are really laughed at very often,” she says with a slight chuckle. “You’re almost forced to take your ethnic identity which, for me, is still uncomfortable, but I recognise how old-fashioned it is frankly.”

She then speaks specifically to her lived experience as an Indian person. “What’s very worrying though, is this constant refrain of ‘go back to India, go back to India’. And the racial nationalism that you often find on social media is difficult,” she says. 

“I often wonder whether it’s a harbinger of things to come, or whether it’s just the views of a very small and vocal minority.”

Delving deeper into her experiences as a woman of colour in her profession, she states: “There is space enough for everyone, and if our politics ascribe to this mentality we can avoid destruction.” Where she sees the potential for a problematic space, Haffajee says she just “moves away very quickly”, almost shrugging off the potential to be undermined.

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Haffajee’s first book, What If There Were No Whites in South Africa, was published in 2015. Illustration: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi

Journalism, politics and the future

“I was so excited when this DA/EFF coalition took over,” says Haffajee, referring to the minority coalition that was formed between the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters in Gauteng… “Actually it was just same shit different day,” says Haffajee, with retrospective wisdom.

With her personal politics established, how should South Africans engage with the national political landscape? As has been, the political realm is riddled with corruption and mismanagement, fostering a defeatist attitude amongst South African youths.

”You know, I’m developing a theory that the future of South Africa is very much going to happen outside of the party political realm, and that it’s proven itself again and again and again to be insufficient to the requirements of the time. Instead what we’ve crafted is a very interesting politics of civil society…I think it’s far more a Gift of the Givers future than it is an ANC, DA, EFF one, which I find increasingly anaemic and unhelpful.”

Du Plessis sheds light on Haffajee’s hand in shaping the current intersection of journalism and politics, particularly during the reign of the Zuma administration. 

“People forget that there was a point when the attack on the media was direct and unrestrained. It was at that critical tipping point – where the media faced being subverted, to the ruin of us all – that Ferial stepped into the breach. She never flinched or backed down from opposing all of that bullshit,” says Du Plessis. “I think these are the kinds of small details that history, very unjustly, forgets to recall. South Africans in general, but journalists in particular, owe her a debt of gratitude that most will never even know about,” he adds. 

Within this evolving political battleground, what advice would Haffajee give to up-and-coming journalists? 

“It’s never something that’s going to make you rich. It can make you unpopular and it can make you vulnerable,” says Haffajee. “On the other hand, I think the Gupta leaks and the various revelations during the state capture era have shown us the vitality and importance of journalism to South African democracy. For me, that’s always something worth remembering as you go into this field is that you can make a real difference to your country, hey.”

Haffajee hopes to continue writing, to continue her work in innovation, perhaps write another book, and consider some bigger issues that are important to her: “Be they political or of our craft.”

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