Jay Naidoo: When a revolution forgets its artists, it forgets its soul

Key topics:

• Culture was central to South Africa’s liberation, not mere decoration.

• Artists like Pops Mohamed face neglect, poverty, and media falsehoods.

• Journalism must verify facts; silence and inaction endanger vulnerable families.

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By Jay Naidoo

I write this not as a commentator looking back with nostalgia, but as someone who lived inside the heart of our struggle for freedom and meaning.

As the founding General Secretary of COSATU, I know not as theory but as lived experience that culture was not a decoration in our revolution. It was infrastructure. Song, poetry, dance, theatre, humour, satire these were organising tools. They carried courage where speeches could not. They sustained discipline where rage might otherwise have spilled into uncontrollable violence.

I remember the BTR Sarmcol strike in Howick in the mid 1980s. Workers were under siege. Families were intimidated. Police harassment was constant. And yet out of that pressure cooker, culture rose. Songs composed on the picket line travelled far beyond the factory gates to Europe, the United States, and the international labour movement. Culture transformed a local industrial dispute into a global moral indictment of apartheid.

Culture bloomed like a million flowers.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu captured it perfectly when he said, “Without our freedom songs, our struggle would have been longer, bloodier, and perhaps not even successful.” He was right. The song softened anger without neutralising it. Dance held grief without turning it into vengeance. Poetry and drama gave voice to suffering that might otherwise have erupted into despair or brutality.

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And yet today many of the very artists who carried that revolution are being discarded, impoverished, sick, humiliated, and forced to beg in their later years.

This is not just a South African story. It is a global one.

Across continents, iconic artists, musicians, actors, poets, storytellers who shaped liberation movements, civil rights struggles, and cultural awakenings are abandoned by governments that eagerly used their talent when it suited them. They are praised in speeches, honoured in death, and ignored in life.

I saw this up close through my friendship with Pops Mohamed.

Pops was not just a musician. He was a bridge between cultures, generations, and traditions. In death however he also became the victim of something else now eating away at our public life: the collapse of journalistic ethics.

Recent media reporting portrayed Pops as having a vast financial empire and suggested dramatic revelations around his will. This was patently false. I formally raised this with the parent company concerned.

The truth is far more sobering and far more familiar to many artists of his generation.

In his later years Pops struggled financially. I personally helped him with medical bills. He could not afford to live on his own and stayed with his daughter Yasmeen out of necessity. Even at his age he continued doing gigs simply to cover his upkeep.

This is not an exception. It is the tragic norm.

What made this reporting particularly disturbing is that according to the executor of Pops’s estate his daughter Yasmeen the will has not been read. She was not contacted by the journalist. No verification was sought. One must therefore ask where this information came from.

This kind of speculative reporting is not harmless. It places grieving families at risk of extortion and criminal targeting. It is irresponsible and dangerous. When journalists speculate about wealth and estates without verification they are not reporting facts. They are manufacturing myths.

The article was eventually withdrawn. But withdrawal without correction or apology is not accountability. It is damage control. The harm occurred at the moment of publication. Screenshots circulate. Rumours harden into belief. Families remain exposed. Falsehoods travel faster than corrections. Algorithms privilege sensation over substance. Retractions rarely catch up with the original harm.

In a time when it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and fake news, it is therefore important to acknowledge when journalism fulfils its highest responsibility.

In this instance News24 chose to stand on the side of verification, restraint, and truth. In doing so it demonstrated what real journalism still looks like in an age when speed too often overrides care and sensation replaces substance.

This is not about personalities or platforms. It is about principle. Journalism exists to inform the public accurately, to test claims rigorously, and to protect ordinary people from unnecessary harm. When these standards are upheld, trust fragile as it is can begin to be rebuilt.

This is the work of real journalism. And it deserves to be recognised.

But recognition does not end the matter.

This brings me to a deeper and more troubling question.

Why did none of the organisations that claim to represent artists and musicians move immediately to challenge this false and dangerous reporting Why was no formal complaint lodged with the Press Council Why was there no public demand for a correction and apology Why was there no rapid response to protect a grieving family whose safety was put at risk

Silence in moments like this is not neutrality. It is complicity.

South Africa has many bodies that claim to represent artists and cultural workers. Yet when a major media organisation publishes false information that endangers a family these organisations are nowhere to be seen. Each waits for another to act. Each assumes someone else will take responsibility. And the moment passes.

This fragmentation is not accidental. It reflects a deeper failure of power.

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Representation without legal teeth is theatre. Organisations that cannot litigate cannot compel accountability. Organisations dependent on state recognition or funding are reluctant to confront powerful institutions. And so injustice is normalised through inaction.

A free press is a cornerstone of democracy. But freedom without responsibility becomes recklessness. Journalism carries power. That power shapes reputations, influences public perception and can expose vulnerable people to real world danger.

The Press Council exists for a reason. Verification fairness and care are not optional extras. They are the ethical minimum.

A society that forgets its artists forgets how it learned to dream.

A liberation movement that abandons its cultural workers reveals that it has confused purpose with an obsession for power.

If we are serious about honouring our past then artists must not be treated as ornaments of history but as living bearers of memory. That requires policy resources and sustained care not charity not funeral tributes not tears at memorials.

Culture carried us through the darkest years.

If we abandon it now we do not just betray our artists.

We betray the soul of the revolution itself.