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'A hard actfoItowProfile of Gwen Lister by

I n 1984 she was arrested.I Four years later she was inI ia i l again. whi le fourI months pregnant. Her of-I fices were firebombed and

teargas was placed in the air con-ditioning.sybtem. But she was notto be intimidated, and in 2000 shewas named one of 50 press free-dom heroes of the past half cen-tury by the International PressInstitute. So. who is Gwen Listerand what shaped her beliefs?

Gwen tells of her.political awak-ening when she was a'young girlattending Springfield Convent ipCape Town. "Both my schoolingand my parents had taught me re-spect for other people, of whatevercolour, creed or origin. One day Iboarded a bus and the harsh realityof apartheid hit me with full force.In those days, buses were segregated- whites on the bottom level, blacksat the top. An elderly black womanladen with bags got on, and couldn'tmanage to climb up the steps. I im-mediately got up from my seat andoffered it to her. I clearly rememberthe abuse I received from the otherpassengers after I insisted she sitdown, and went several stops pastwheretl was supposed to get ofi be-cause I wanted to see that she disem-barked safely without harassment."

It was as a student at the Univer-sity of CapeTown (UCT) thatGwenbecame politically active. "Butthen, as has been the case in my lifesince then, I never joined political

organisations. I was loosely affili-ated to what was known as 'RadSoc' at UCT - the Radical Society,but never became a member of ei-ther this organisation or the NationalUnion of South African Students,"she recalls. In the 70s those "radi-cal students" were tear gapsed onmany occasions for protest ingagainst apartheid.

The student years"One of the major episodes was

when a.group of us decided to pro-test hgainst a rugby match between ateam of Southem Universities and theBritish Lions. As we ran onto the fieldwith a banner reading 'We are play-ing with apartheid', hordes of SA po-lice came running towards us from theother side. There were ugly incidentson'the field with police and demon-strators and rugby players, and whenwe finally fled we were attacked bythe crowdb. One young woman in our'group nearly lost an eye as a manjabbed his umbrella in her face."

Gwen decided that for her, the bestway of fighting an unjust societywas through the pen. "Having gotmy degree in Political Philosophy,Ethics and History I set about look-ing for a job in Namibia, because Ibelieved that change would comesooner there than it would in SouthAfrica." Her parents were living inNamibia and she got a job at theWindhoek Advertiser.

Her early years in jorirnalism werenot easy, working for a male editor

who did not believe alonged in u n"*rroomitism by fire, but she wasto learning the job withof her being and iformed the editor thatto wnte potltlcs.

The hours were lons andshe was one of the firststart covering Swapomibia. "Nervous at first.Iber the late Dan Time to go right to themasses and make midentifiable, unlike the'whites' in the vicinity,mainly security police,monitoring the proceedingsCressidas a long way offcrowds!"

Gwen tells proudly hownever missed a day bf workyears due to ill-lrealth. Evenshe ga.ve birth to her son, inshe wrote her weekly columnSee It' from her hospital bed,never had the advantase ofnity leave or any other benefits,when she save birth to herin 1988. the babv was born oncember 26 and Gwen waswork on January 4, runningevery fourhours to breastfeed.been married twice, an,il who'name all the factors thatthese lelationships to collapse?

"It is certainly not easy, aswomen are aware, to have asion, and particularly one like jnalism which is a 24-hour a

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:ii'::"tiH'iT,",:lli:1r:1111:111,.bT'needed in bringing tea11.l1m "rr rg;"g;hloitn".orntry, ,nd tho."P"Percannowprtoa"t intotnecommunityivou could really feel the sense of unity tnJ,:",; .i"

""v, who attended'witnesseo some first-class

daughter a Grade 7 pupil at Strges. Gwen now lives with Jo.partner for the past five years.the years prior to independence,

Smirking Koevoets"I1 the early mornings I got called

our if the alarm was going offar theonrce. I recall driving to the officeone morning at about three o,clock,while heavily pregnant, getting therea_nd seeing several rhembJrs of'Koevoet' sitting around and smirk_rng. surrounded by disgusting smearpamphtets of me that had been lib_

and try and do justiceand kids and home at

time. It's an exercise whichconstanr juggling of 'time

l - - ) t

does organise her scheduletime with her kids. Busi_

lunches are out. Instead sheup kids from school andthat hour with them. Like_

she always tries to be at homeearly evenings when home_is to be done, food to beand children to be put to bed.

, she returns to work af_has been done.her son is a second year lawat Rhodes University and

'Swapo'. The white communitv al_m_ost completely rejected ier.^y,l:".""r. I was jailed. securirypollce would confiscate my diaryand contact people whose-nameswere in it, intimidating, them andurging them not to associate withme. I slept lightly ar nighr, antici_pating trouble at every turn. Thephone rang frequently with threats

It de?rh: and I always rushed to pickrt up before one of my kids did.

erally distributed throughout townin the night hours.',Indeed the eighties were full ofproblems for this kind ofjournalisr

I,ister's home was raidedty police;she was also tried lanO suUsequentlyacquitted) under a number of Soutf,A-frican laws for alleged possessionot banned documents.

_ In May 19g4 she travel led toLusaka, Zambia, to cover Namibiaindependence talks. and on h;;;;:tum. the South African authoritiesbanned the Winclho e k O b s e rv e r, pn_-u:rtt due ro her polirical,"poningand coverage of Swapo issues. Af]terraising funds from abroad, Listerchallenged the ban on the newspa_per before the. publication, app"atFoard in pretoria and succeeded inhaving it set aside. However, on her."Ju- she found that management

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of the Observerhaddone a p"li,i."in was qu ick ly labe l led a

L. L.

about-turn and demoted her fromher po3t as Political Editor, blam-ing her for the banning. This led tothe walkout of the entire staffof thenewspaper, resulting in their dis-missal and. Gwen's resignation'

Despite being arrested and con-tinually harassed by the authorities,Gwen Lister managed to securefunding for her own Publicationwith the assistance of lawYer DaveSmuts, and the first edition of TheNamibian was Published on 30 Au-.gust 1985. The editorial policy of

lished which provided for sweepingnew powers for Police in Namibiaand a 'state of emergencY' in gen-eral. She was finally released afterinternational protests. In October1988 the offices of The Namibianwere burnt down bY a grouP callingthemselves the 'white wolves"

The attacks did not stoP at inde-pendence: in August 1990, thenewspaper was again targeted bYright wing groups after Gwen wrotea front-page report about a possiblecoup attempt against the new gov-

The found ihgs ta f f o fTheNamib ianwhen i tS ta r ted in lgS5 ' | n theback row f romieft to risht are Dudlev vLil, o"u" salmon, rvrlr9no1 X3j,li.si:3l1li9^";,f,?*ffiffiil;,s-ulc"rrll'"". rt tt.'L tronl row from left zue chris Shipanga' Ingrid Muinjo'Gwen Lister and Mbatjiua Ngavirue'

The Namibiarz was indePendent, andstrongly in favour of self-determi-nation for Namibia in terrns of theUnited Nations Plan.

The newsPaPer immediatelY im-plemented an affirmative 4ctionpolicy and a training programme torjournalists. From the outset thenewspaper was the onlY one in Na-mibia to expose ongoing atrocitiesand human rights violations, ofNamibians at the hands of SouthAfrican security forces. The news-paper and staff quickly became tar-,geted by right wing groups and thesecurity forces themselves'

In June 1988 Gwen was detainedfor several daYs, while four monthspregnant, under Proclamation AG 9,which provided for detention with-ouitrial for an indefinite period anddenial of access to a lawyer' Authori-ties wanted to know from her thesource of a document she h"ad Pub-

ernment. The editorial offices weredestroyed through a firebombing'Righewing German nationals andNamibians were brieflY held butmanaged to escaPe from custody'

. , i

Throughout alli these attacksGwen Lister has shown that shP willnot bow to threats and acts of in-timidation. Her newsPaPer has re-mained indePendent and continuesto adopt a watchdog role over thegovernment of the d'aY in an effortto promote accountability and trans-parency. The newsPaPer has -alsomanaged to make the transition frombeing donor-funded to financial self-sufficiencY, and is set uP as a non-profit trust.

Gwen says that circumstances areobviously muCh better now with aConstitution whjch guarantees pressfreedom. But dhe emPhasizes thatthere is still a lack ofunderstandingas to the role of the mgdia as well as

a lack ofviews. However,develop with time:people should trY torthe media essentiallrights they themselis the right to freewhereas theY maYright now, or exercnewould miss it if it

Not anti-just pro'i

"The recent bans onper are obviouslY trofeel that time and hidicate us. Neither mnewspaper are 'is claimbd. Theequivocally elected bYof our peoPle. But thatthat they're alwaYs rithose who make uP theare always good. We allnot the case and we havewrongdoing. This is ourmust also give credit whereand I think we do that. Neithere any foreign agendas orfunds involved.

"We are proudThebecome self sufficient' Iteasy, and it was onlYmaking it a very flatcritics should also see that thepaper is'not just Gwen'sis far more than that.-It is anwith many tomPonents, with'to give our readers and suPPcand it wili continue to do so."

Gwen plans to hand over theper to her staff in future, whenfeel ready. But being editor isan easy position, nor a PoPuIarmost of the time, and mosttend to shY awaY fromBut she is determined, in thetoo-distant future, to make waYaNamibian who is Younger, andof energY and commitment toori this task. "What I'll doWho knows. Doing what I hadone, and loving (ust about)minute of it, is a hard act to f