1942-48 : Born Pretoria 12.09.1942 into white working class family (father sheetmetal worker, SA Railways)
1948-61: Primrose, Germiston (Primrose Engish Medium, Germiston Boys' High)
Started stringing for newspapers in last two years at secondary school; joined Germiston Advocate on leaving school.
1961-65: Recruited - in error - into the ANC by New Age reporter Joe Gqabi after covering a Group Areas Board meeting; subsequently ordered to join Congress of Democrats. Denied passport and Press card by police.
Chief (and only) reporter/sub on Boksburg Advertiser before joining Johannesburg Star. Completed Argus training course; subsequently night duty reporter/sub Rand Daily Mail (RDM); Executive member (non-racial) SA Journalists' Union (collapsed after detention of several members, including self).
Detained under 90-day law, while working for RDM and editing underground magazine, Combat. Provided material on prison conditions for RDM.
Left for exile (after arrest of Combat distributors) April 1965.
1965 (April- August): Zambia. Chief reporter Northern News/Times of Zambia. Extradition to SA requested. Deported "for own personal safety" to asylum in UK.
1965-68: UK. UN Fellow University College, London, freelance sub/writer, editor AntiApartheid News, broadcaster (including commentaries for BBC Francistown transmitter into UDI Rhodesia), member ANC Youth and cultural group. Married SA activist Barbara Edmunds - and banned by SA government - 1966.
1968-70: Features editor Times/Sunday Times of Zambia; journalism trainer; editor Zambia Review magazines. Daughter born in Zambia. Forced to leave Zambia (Vorster-Kaunda d'etante); OR Tambo agrees move to New Zealand "to help start Anti-Apartheid movement".
Was the only journalist in Equatorial Guinea for independence in October 1968 (he got in before a ban came down); and the first foreign journalist into Chile after the 1973 coup (his scoop, before being "requested to leave" was the assassination of former Allende government minister Renaldo Calderon)
1971-79: New Zealand. Initially Auckland Star as feature writer/reporter. Keynote speaker (1972) at founding of NZ AAM; newspaper columnist/sub/editor and sometime talkshow host and teacher (primary/literacy/adult ed); launched media campaign for wrongful murder conviction of Arthur Allan Thomas (full pardon and compensation won 1979); founding editor Aotea News Feature Service; produced numerous articles, book chapters dealing with the politics of South Africa. Member anti-nuclear Peace Squadron. Son born in New Zealand.
1980-82: Tanzania, with family. Founding principal, Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College primary division; head of Somafco journalism training course; drama group co-ordinator.
1983-90: UK. Freelance sub, then production editor, Observer Business Section, syndications editor, Observer and editor of Observer English as a Foreign Language worksheets. Wrote brief Observer SA history for sixth form students. Production editor London Daily News Business Section; co-editor (from 1986-2006) Africa Analysis; founder/co-ordinator international Friends of Moses Mayekiso (the "Alex 5") campaign; director British Defence and Aid Fund for southern Africa; AAM speaker. Unbanned February 1990.
1991-present: Returned to cover Codesa I for several UK publications (including Africa Analysis - AA), settled in Cape Town 1991. Continued to edit (via internet) fortnightly London-based AA (to 2006) and, from 1993-1996 (in Jhb) monthly Southern Africa Exclusive (SAE). Also produced, on a regular basis, four-page, "read and copy" educational material on politics and economics, mainly for university students in Cape Town.
1942-48 : Born Pretoria 12.09.1942 into white working class family (father sheetmetal worker, SA Railways)
1948-61: Primrose, Germiston (Primrose Engish Medium, Germiston Boys’ High) Started stringing for newspapers in last two years at secondary school; joined Germiston Advocate on leaving school.
1961-65: Recruited — in error — into the ANC by New Age reporter Joe Gqabi after covering a Group Areas Board meeting; subsequently ordered to join Congress of Democrats. Denied passport and Press card by police. Chief (and only) reporter/sub on Boksburg Advertiser before joining Johannesburg Star. Completed Argus training course; subsequently night duty reporter/sub Rand Daily Mail (RDM); Executive member (non-racial) SA Journalists’ Union (collapsed after detention of several members, including self). Detained under 90-day law, while working for RDM and editing underground magazine, Combat. Provided material on prison conditions for RDM. Left for exile (after arrest of Combat distributors)
April 1965. 1965 (April- August): Zambia. Chief reporter Northern News/Times of Zambia. Extradition to SA requested. Deported “for own personal safety” to asylum in UK.
1965-68: UK. UN Fellow University College, London, freelance sub/writer, editor AntiApartheid News, broadcaster (including commentaries for BBC Francistown transmitter into UDI Rhodesia), member ANC Youth and cultural group. Married SA activist Barbara Edmunds — and banned by SA government — 1966. 1968-70: Features editor Times/Sunday Times of Zambia; journalism trainer; editor Zambia Review magazines. Daughter born in Zambia. Forced to leave Zambia (Vorster-Kaunda d’etante); OR Tambo agrees move to New Zealand “to help start Anti-Apartheid movement”. Was the only journalist in Equatorial Guinea for independence in October 1968 (he got in before a ban came down); and the first foreign journalist into Chile after the 1973 coup (his scoop, before being "requested to leave" was the assassination of former Allende government minister Renaldo Calderon) 1971-79: New Zealand. Initially Auckland Star as feature writer/reporter. Keynote speaker (1972) at founding of NZ AAM; newspaper columnist/sub/editor and sometime talkshow host and teacher (primary/literacy/adult ed); launched media campaign for wrongful murder conviction of Arthur Allan Thomas (full pardon and compensation won 1979); founding editor Aotea News Feature Service; produced numerous articles, book chapters dealing with the politics of South Africa. Member anti-nuclear Peace Squadron. Son born in New Zealand. 1980-82: Tanzania, with family. Founding principal, Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College primary division; head of Somafco journalism training course; drama group co-ordinator. 1983-90: UK. Freelance sub, then production editor, Observer Business Section, syndications editor, Observer and editor of Observer English as a Foreign Language worksheets. Wrote brief Observer SA history for sixth form students. Production editor London Daily News Business Section; co-editor (from 1986-2006) Africa Analysis; founder/co-ordinator international Friends of Moses Mayekiso (the “Alex 5”) campaign; director British Defence and Aid Fund for southern Africa; AAM speaker. Unbanned February 1990. 1991-present: Returned to cover Codesa I for several UK publications (including Africa Analysis — AA), settled in Cape Town 1991. Continued to edit (via internet) fortnightly London-based AA (to 2006) and, from 1993-1996 (in Jhb) monthly Southern Africa Exclusive (SAE). Also produced, on a regular basis, four-page, "read and copy" educational material on politics and economics, mainly for university students in Cape Town. Included in first SAE, (March 1993) exclusive material on the sending of "MK" recruits to Uganda for training for future incorporation into SA(N)DF and a "ghosted" (by me) commentary by Nelson Mandela on way forward for SA; flagged ANC economic policy orientation to private sector and plans for regional market; before 1994 election reported on the effective collapse of the rightwing "Freedom Alliance" and predicted the departure from it by the IFP. Post 1994 researched and wrote reports (for AA and SAE) on the composition of the new security services, on debt levels and how the reconstruction and development programme (RDP) ran aground; provided analysis of debt and unemployment, leading to warnings about "alarming" current account deficit. From 1996, wrote Inside Labour column for Business Report, covering issues — including political turmoil — within the labour movement. At the same time, researched issues around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), uncovering a plethora of material, including how security police had managed the main supposed ANC "escape route" from South Africa; that the Hertford Inn at Lanseria had been the base of these operations and who was behind them. Also uncovered the 1969 memorandum penned by Chris Hani and seven others about corruption in the ANC and disclosed that the putative head of military intelligence had previously been in charge of the apartheid military's "dirty tricks" unit in the Directorate for Covert Collection (DCC — he was subsequently given a retirement package). Some of this material was published in various news media, but the bulk went into the book, Unfinished Business — South Africa, apartheid and truth. Work in this area was predicated on the basis that South Africa needed properly to confront the past if the much lauded "miracle" transition was to last. In the process of TRC work, also discovered that 34 boxes of documentation — controversially and illegally deemed by a TRC official to be "classified" — had disappeared. Finally, using Promotion of Access to Information Act and other means, established the whereabouts of the boxes and the fact that the then minister had lied about them. Apart from discovering the previous head of the DCC and details about the operations of Craig Williamson and his police and military handlers and contacts, the highpoint of these investigations was the uncovering of the identity of the former police agent RS452 after NPA chief Bulelani Ngcuka had been accused of having been RS452. Highlights in more recent years have been: work on disclosing the dubious background of Ed Fagin the US lawyer who initially took on and promoted the apartheid claims case; exposing the illegal "test" claim of Matthias Rath who maintains his vitamins can cure everything from cancer and high blood pressure to AIDS; campaigning for, and receiving, nearly 100 000 signatures to a petition calling for VAT zero-rating for books; discovering the existence of the secret SACP "Kopano" account, with donations from the Chinese embassy and various trade unions from which the SACP general secretary had drawn R145 000; organising and reporting on the background to — and the honouring at Freedom Park of — John Harris on the 40th anniversary of his hanging. With the emergence of COPE and the ongoing turmoil in the governing alliance, researched and wrote Comrade Moss — a political journey, that hopefully provides some of the background to the political tensions that exist to this day. Publications: Comrade Moss - a political journey (2009), Lionel Forman — A life too short (editor - 2008), Unfinished Business - South Africa, apartheid & truth (2001, 2003), South Africa — modern studies handbook (1986), This is New Zealand (Text only, 1979), The Midas Touch (1976) Hillary - the years after, Great NZ Fire Disasters, UFO - Here? (Herald dollar books, 1975-76); The Broken Pieces (1974); Voices from Paremoremo (editor- 1973), Bitter Hill ( 1972). Also contributor to southern Africa sections of various New Zealand secondary school textbooks (MacMillan, Longman).
Included in first SAE, (March 1993) exclusive material on the sending of "MK" recruits to Uganda for training for future incorporation into SA(N)DF and a "ghosted" (by me) commentary by Nelson Mandela on way forward for SA; flagged ANC economic policy orientation to private sector and plans for regional market; before 1994 election reported on the effective collapse of the rightwing "Freedom Alliance" and predicted the departure from it by the IFP.
Post 1994 researched and wrote reports (for AA and SAE) on the composition of the new security services, on debt levels and how the reconstruction and development programme (RDP) ran aground; provided analysis of debt and unemployment, leading to warnings about "alarming" current account deficit.
From 1996, wrote Inside Labour column for Business Report, covering issues - including political turmoil - within the labour movement. At the same time, researched issues around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), uncovering a plethora of material, including how security police had managed the main supposed ANC "escape route" from South Africa; that the Hertford Inn at Lanseria had been the base of these operations and who was behind them. Also uncovered the 1969 memorandum penned by Chris Hani and seven others about corruption in the ANC and disclosed that the putative head of military intelligence had previously been in charge of the apartheid military's "dirty tricks" unit in the Directorate for Covert Collection (DCC - he was subsequently given a retirement package). Some of this material was published in various news media, but the bulk went into the book, Unfinished Business - South Africa, apartheid and truth. Work in this area was predicated on the basis that South Africa needed properly to confront the past if the much lauded "miracle" transition was to last.
In the process of TRC work, also discovered that 34 boxes of documentation - controversially and illegally deemed by a TRC official to be "classified" - had disappeared. Finally, using Promotion of Access to Information Act and other means, established the whereabouts of the boxes and the fact that the then minister had lied about them. Apart from discovering the previous head of the DCC and details about the operations of Craig Williamson and his police and military handlers and contacts, the highpoint of these investigations was the uncovering of the identity of the former police agent RS452 after NPA chief Bulelani Ngcuka had been accused of having been RS452.
Highlights in more recent years have been: work on disclosing the dubious background of Ed Fagin the US lawyer who initially took on and promoted the apartheid claims case; exposing the illegal "test" claim of Matthias Rath who maintains his vitamins can cure everything from cancer and high blood pressure to AIDS; campaigning for, and receiving, nearly 100 000 signatures to a petition calling for VAT zero-rating for books; discovering the existence of the secret SACP "Kopano" account, with donations from the Chinese embassy and various trade unions from which the SACP general secretary had drawn R145 000; organising and reporting on the background to - and the honouring at Freedom Park of - John Harris on the 40th anniversary of his hanging.
With the emergence of COPE and the ongoing turmoil in the governing alliance, researched and wrote Comrade Moss - a political journey, that hopefully provides some of the background to the political tensions that exist to this day.
Publications: Comrade Moss - a political journey (2009), Lionel Forman - A life too short (editor - 2008), Unfinished Business - South Africa, apartheid & truth (2001, 2003), South Africa - modern studies handbook (1986), This is New Zealand (Text only, 1979), The Midas Touch (1976) Hillary - the years after, Great NZ Fire Disasters, UFO - Here? (Herald dollar books, 1975-76); The Broken Pieces (1974); Voices from Paremoremo (editor-
1973), Bitter Hill ( 1972). Also contributor to southern Africa sections of various New Zealand secondary school textbooks (MacMillan, Longman).
