🔒 Boardroom Talk – Memories of young reporter and a guest who refused to shake hands

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By Alec Hogg

It was sad to hear of Essop Pahad’s passing last week. He was 84 and a member of the group of exiles whose return to the Beloved Country brought such hope when they came home in 1990 when the ban on the ANC was lifted. 

Bad as things look in the country right now, those of us who had front row seats to the transition would then, in a heartbeat, have grabbed SA 2023 as an outcome. Often it looked like the Young Democracy would be stillborn – Boipatong; AWB’s storming of the World Trade Centre; the farmer “invasion” of Bophuthatswana; IFP v Comrades; and much more. 

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

Having joined the national broadcaster shortly after Madiba was released was one of my smartest career moves, it brought a unique opportunity to meet and interview the previously barred Struggle icons. Among them Essop Pahad, who we invited into the radio studios at the SABC for a debate on a weekly phone-in programme for SAFM. 

Pahad was charm personified. Not so the other guest that evening, Clive Derby-Lewis, one of the few English-speaking members of the Conservative Party leadership and a man who was later to become notorious for his role in Chris Hani’s murder. 

What sticks with me from that night was how Derby-Lewis refused to shake Pahad’s extended hand – because he was a communist. A small gesture which said so much. Looking back, it’s a reminder that the worst of all character defects is a closed mind. Such a pity this particular virus has become so widespread. 

Sterkte.

Alec

*The first whales have arrived in Hermanus, and thousands more who migrate annually for birthing and breeding are shortly behind them. The whales will be around in full force when BizNews celebrates its 10th birthday on Friday, 4 August. We’d love you to join us then – and get in some whale watching too. Here’s the link with all the details and booking info: https://qkt.io/zLaR1L  

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