Ray Hartley – Ragged Glory: Chronicle of SA’s unintended consequences

Ray Hartley has long been recognised as one of South Africa's best journalists. A former editor of the Sunday Times, he possesses the researcher's passion for facts, a newsman's eye for a story and the courage to publish, no matter how powerful the tails it tweaks. These skills were applied in full measure during the three years he took to write his new book which he called Ragged Glory. A title drawn from his view that South Africa gloriously overcame its dreadful history, but threatens to unravel it through a succession of poor decisions. Hartley joined us on CNBC Africa's Power Lunch today to talk about his book, which goes on sale tomorrow. It is especially relevant for South Africans seeking to understand where we are today and why we have a collective duty to keep fighting the progressive drift. – AH

ALEC HOGG: Welcome back to Power Lunch. Ray Hartley, former editor of the Sunday Times, has written a book, called 'Ragged Glory: a rainbow nation in black and white'. Well Ray, as I told you off-air I got a little depressed here because it is so well researched, it's almost as if you've poured your life and everything else into this book. However, it's a little bit depressing as well because when you unpack the last 20 years – from the Madiba dream to where we are today – it's quite a sad story, in some respects.

RAY HARTLEY: Yes, part of it is the inevitable collapsing of a dream into reality because it was a miracle transition as has been described, and that can only last for so long. Then you're in reality and you have to make policy choices. You have to make decisions about how you approach corruption, and each and every one of those decisions has consequences, and that's one of the things that's happened over the last 20 years. Politicians and leaders haven't understood that all of the small movements and decisions they make about approaching these issues have consequences. They play out over many years. For example, when Sarafina 2 took place, Nelson Mandela's Health Minister signed off the play for 14-million, didn't follow any procedure, and was dragged over the coals by Parliament.

There and then, Nelson Mandela could have said 'we're not going to be that kind of country. You're fired. We're not going to do it this way', the message would have been loud and clear, and a direction would have been charted. Instead, the decision was taken to protect the Minister and to quiet down the Parliamentary enquiry, and a minor official was shafted. Yes, the message was loud and clear to the politicians and everybody watching.

ALEC HOGG: And you've had a front row seat here – just your own career. You've been a journalist I suppose, pretty much from the day dot – running the biggest newspaper in South Africa. I mentioned to the lady who was here a bit earlier that as a journalist, one sees a whole spectrum, but you only get to publish a small part of it because you can't confirm the rest of it. I guess the unconfirmed stuff that you've been seeing must be quite scary. Have you put much of that in the book?

RAY HARTLEY: Yes, some of it. Again, it has to be confirmed for it to be… It's still in writing. We're putting it down in writing so I have to pretty sure of my facts and what I've written.

ALEC HOGG: Why did you write?

RAY HARTLEY: I think because there isn't a South african narrative. We have the little bits of the stories and there's the Mandela thing, but what is the narrative thread? What is the story of the political economy of this country and the way that it's unfolded? These things are all linked together and they all flow, one from the other and the absence of that story makes us a poorer country. I'm trying to contribute something towards that, to actually say 'hang one. This is how it unfolded. This is how we ended up where we are. It's not an accident. It's not something that happened over the last year. We have developed this way because of the way our politics has unfolded'.

ALEC HOGG: We took decisions. We did not understand the consequences and we are living with them today. You do try to put in something in your last page though, where you mention Judge Edwin Cameron.

RAY HARTLEY: Yes. The title of the book is Ragged Glory.

ALEC HOGG: Meaning…

RAY HARTLEY: There is the glory. Let's not forget that we've abandoned apartheid, that we've unified the country, that we got rid of the homelands, that people have the vote, that we have institutions such as the Public Protector and the Judiciary that we never had before. We have a very vibrant media etcetera. There is the glory but it's getting ragged. It's being challenged. It's being undermined by very powerful people who could potentially, in the future, drag us down and unravel what was done under the democratic era.

ALEC HOGG: But that upbeat message that Edwin Cameron said…

RAY HARTLEY: I think it's that our institutions are there and that they stand firm. Just this last week, the official opposition was given the right to see the 'spy tapes' and it may ultimately lead to a judicial prosecution of the President. That is still happening. We mustn't think that there is nothing standing up for democracy, for the Constitution, and for the direction that we chose in 1994.

ALEC HOGG: There is kickback and the kickback from the politicians for, I suppose, rational reasons, but those institutions – as you say – hold firm. What about Ray Hartley, the person who goes home at night and thinks about the country that he's raising his children in. Are you still happy to be here? Are you happy that you'll see your grandkids?

RAY HARTLEY: Yes, I am. I am positive. I believe that we have an institutional framework and a Constitution that will not allow this country to fail. I think that we also have the national spirit of sorting through these problems. We don't seem to be demonstrating it very well right now, but I'm quite sure that when we go through these crises – as we are – the crises of stagnating economic growth is massive for South Africa. Nobody seems to put in red lights, but it's pretty serious. I'm confident that we have the people and the leadership that can actually take us out of this. We might not see it clearly now, but I do think we do have that.

ALEC HOGG: Ray, it's been a privileged to read your book and to talk to you today.

RAY HARTLEY: Thank you.

ALEC HOGG: A wonderful contribution to the South African Story. It gets past the narrative. It gets past the opinions, goes to the facts, goes to explaining, and lets us all understand what the consequences (often unintended) are, of decisions that are taken so easily, it seems. That was Ray Hartley, the author of Ragged Glory. The book will be on the shelves tomorrow.