A double blow for journalism – a tribute to Deon du Plessis and Patrick Leeman
By Marlan Padayachee
KANTHAN Pillay provided an insightful portrait and anecdotes of the newspapering life of Deon du Plessis. This is how I recall a fallen colleague, who ensured that I covered President Nelson Mandela's historic visit to India, once the ANC's strongest ally, for Independent Newspapers and Post, in 1995.
More so, journalism was dealt a double blow: the paragon of publishing, founder of the Daily Sun and stalwart of the mainstream media, has passed on, leaving behind a legacy of an old-fashioned newspaperman, with his sleeves folded and booming voice, that provided excellent editorial leadership and humanity.
Diametrically opposed and a quieter personality was Patrick Leeman, who passed away a day after Du Plessis’s demise on 9/11.
Within the context of the newsroom environment at Natal Newspapers (Independent Newspapers), both wordsmiths touched the lives of peers, colleagues, workers and the public through their unique brand of journalism, human touch and their ability to engage people across the colour lines during the apartheid-democracy era.
Leeman was no Sunday Christian. He brought his Catholicism into his profession, often expressing favourable or dissenting views within the challenges of the industry, championing society’s underclass, while remaining committed to journalism and Paddy Kearney’s Diakonia Council of Churches that assisted striking black media workers in the 1980s.
Du Plessis also showed his hand and craftsmanship during the Media Workers Association of South Africa’s 13-week industrial action in a national protest against newsroom inequalities, racism and lack of career opportunities for disadvantaged reporters and poor pay and working conditions for workers.
As Deputy Editor of the Sunday Tribune, one of the Argus/SAAN publications hit by the strike, Du Plessis tackled the pros and the cons of the strike issue in his column about the ‘three empty desks’ – a reference to the absence of journalists, Ticks Chetty, Shami Harichunder and I from our work stations. The strike separated white and black colleagues on industry politics and ideological grounds.
The union remained unswerving to bring about the changes that presently prevail in the print and electronic media. MWASA won the day. Workers were reinstated and not even a big-hearted and boorish giant like Du Plessis bore any resentment to those who reoccupied the ‘three empty desks’.
He understood the growing militancy and the political terrain of the time. He also stopped short of sanctioning unionised journalists who raised their clenched fists, black-power style, at the launch of an ethnic political party headed by a controversial House of Delegates’ politician. Despite fielding the complaint, Du Plessis argued cogently about the objectivity of journalists, whether we enjoyed political rights, but still respected our action.
Heading back to Johannesburg, straight-talking Du Plessis left an indelible mark in the business of news gathering. Despite his ideological chasm, Afrikaner culture and fiercely independent mind, many of us looked up to this towering practitioner with admiration and respect.
This firm and fair, and yet colourful persona, is journalism’s loss .
The success of his top-circulation tabloid for blue-collar and working-class readers bears testimony to his integrity, honesty, management style, professional passion and inimitable common touch.
His legacy and contribution serves to inspire editors and journalists to continue reporting and publishing without fear or favour, and be damned, particularly at a time when the media landscape is at the crossroads of our young constitutional democracy.
Ends
· Marlan Padayachee, Journalist, Researcher and Media and Communications Strategist, GreenGold House, 1 Hillside Road, Dawncliffe, Westville, South Africa: marlan.padayachee@greengoldmedia.com/ (031) 266 2134/ 266 4293/ Cell: 073 625 8247.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Durban's Fozy Peer is rising in radiography ranks
Durban’s Fozy Peer – Rising Within the World of Radiography
By Marlan Padayachee
WHEN radiographers in South Africa and rest of the globe celebrate World Radiography Day on 8th November, one of its chief campaigners, Dr Fozy Peer of Durban, will be in the company of some of leading scientists at the conference of the International Atomic Energy Association in Vienna, Austria.
Dr Peer, a senior manager in nuclear medicine at the Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, is among the delegates attending this week’s four-day IAEA’s conference that will also focus on the latest Pet-Scan Imaging diagnostics purposes used to treat mainly cancer patients.
She said her attendance and participation at the conference will bring her to the coalface of nuclear medicine, radiography and radiology issues on a world scale as the conference has attracted some of the leading thought leaders, academics and exponents in the professions.
Back at home and in many countries around the world, including Africa, radiographers will be holding workshops, seminars, goodwill fellowships and get-togethers to mark World Radiography Day under the theme, Radiography: the Heart of Medicine, at government and private hospitals and medical centres and institutions.
Each year, the Society of Radiographers of South Africa, of which Dr Peer is a spokeswoman and board member, gather to pay homage to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1895, an outstanding academic achievement that made him the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 1901.
Said Dr Peer, the first woman in the country to achieve a doctorate in radiography, and a director of public-relations and board member of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians: “World Radiography Day is an annual international initiative that is aimed at raising awareness of and stimulating an interest in radiography as a profession. This collective contribution serves to highlight the importance of radiography, the indispensable function it plays, and the frontline role of radiographers in the health care environment.”
Hospitals and health care centres here and abroad will host open days and share information about radiography as a challenging career in the medical and healthcare sector
In the medical field, radiographers play a key role as frontline health workers, particularly during the upcoming holiday season when road fatalities and pedestrian injuries escalate at crisis proportions through speeding, reckless driving practices, especially drink-driving and drug abuse behind the wheel.
“World Radiography Day also highlights career opportunities for young graduates, promotes opportunities for radiographers to start their own practices, and puts the focus on how government can partner the private sector in stemming the flow of the flight skills. Scarce skills are bound to affect the quality of healthcare for patients across South Africa.”
Dr Peer, who has been credited locally and internationally for having brought the first World Congress of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians to Durban, South in 2008, and then responsible for the hosting of the first joint conference of the Society of Radiographers of South Africa and the Radiological Society of South Africa in Durban this year, also confirmed the second joint Durban Congress of both disciplines will be held in the city from 18-21 April in 2013.
The next World Congress takes place in Toronto, Canada, in 2012.
SOUTH AFRICA CELEBRATES WORLD RADIOGRAPHY DAY 8 NOVEMBER 2011
RADIOGRAPHERS and medical support staff will join the rest of the world in celebrating and commemorating World Radiography Day on Tuesday, 8 November.
The Society of Radiographers of South Africa will observe this year’s theme, Radiography: the Heart of Medicine, in homage to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1895 and first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 1901.
“Radiography Day is an annual international initiative that is aimed at raising awareness of and stimulating an interest in radiography as a profession. This collective contribution serves to highlight the importance of radiography, the indispensable function it plays and the frontline role of radiographers in the health care environment,” said Dr Fozy Peer, spokeswoman for Society of Radiographers of South Africa and the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians.
Hospitals and health care centres in South Africa and across the globe will host open days and share information about radiography as a challenging career in the medical and healthcare sector.
Marlan Padayachee is a journalist and media consultant to the Society of Radiographers of South Africa.
Ends
By Marlan Padayachee
WHEN radiographers in South Africa and rest of the globe celebrate World Radiography Day on 8th November, one of its chief campaigners, Dr Fozy Peer of Durban, will be in the company of some of leading scientists at the conference of the International Atomic Energy Association in Vienna, Austria.
Dr Peer, a senior manager in nuclear medicine at the Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, is among the delegates attending this week’s four-day IAEA’s conference that will also focus on the latest Pet-Scan Imaging diagnostics purposes used to treat mainly cancer patients.
She said her attendance and participation at the conference will bring her to the coalface of nuclear medicine, radiography and radiology issues on a world scale as the conference has attracted some of the leading thought leaders, academics and exponents in the professions.
Back at home and in many countries around the world, including Africa, radiographers will be holding workshops, seminars, goodwill fellowships and get-togethers to mark World Radiography Day under the theme, Radiography: the Heart of Medicine, at government and private hospitals and medical centres and institutions.
Each year, the Society of Radiographers of South Africa, of which Dr Peer is a spokeswoman and board member, gather to pay homage to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1895, an outstanding academic achievement that made him the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 1901.
Said Dr Peer, the first woman in the country to achieve a doctorate in radiography, and a director of public-relations and board member of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians: “World Radiography Day is an annual international initiative that is aimed at raising awareness of and stimulating an interest in radiography as a profession. This collective contribution serves to highlight the importance of radiography, the indispensable function it plays, and the frontline role of radiographers in the health care environment.”
Hospitals and health care centres here and abroad will host open days and share information about radiography as a challenging career in the medical and healthcare sector
In the medical field, radiographers play a key role as frontline health workers, particularly during the upcoming holiday season when road fatalities and pedestrian injuries escalate at crisis proportions through speeding, reckless driving practices, especially drink-driving and drug abuse behind the wheel.
“World Radiography Day also highlights career opportunities for young graduates, promotes opportunities for radiographers to start their own practices, and puts the focus on how government can partner the private sector in stemming the flow of the flight skills. Scarce skills are bound to affect the quality of healthcare for patients across South Africa.”
Dr Peer, who has been credited locally and internationally for having brought the first World Congress of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians to Durban, South in 2008, and then responsible for the hosting of the first joint conference of the Society of Radiographers of South Africa and the Radiological Society of South Africa in Durban this year, also confirmed the second joint Durban Congress of both disciplines will be held in the city from 18-21 April in 2013.
The next World Congress takes place in Toronto, Canada, in 2012.
SOUTH AFRICA CELEBRATES WORLD RADIOGRAPHY DAY 8 NOVEMBER 2011
RADIOGRAPHERS and medical support staff will join the rest of the world in celebrating and commemorating World Radiography Day on Tuesday, 8 November.
The Society of Radiographers of South Africa will observe this year’s theme, Radiography: the Heart of Medicine, in homage to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1895 and first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 1901.
“Radiography Day is an annual international initiative that is aimed at raising awareness of and stimulating an interest in radiography as a profession. This collective contribution serves to highlight the importance of radiography, the indispensable function it plays and the frontline role of radiographers in the health care environment,” said Dr Fozy Peer, spokeswoman for Society of Radiographers of South Africa and the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians.
Hospitals and health care centres in South Africa and across the globe will host open days and share information about radiography as a challenging career in the medical and healthcare sector.
Marlan Padayachee is a journalist and media consultant to the Society of Radiographers of South Africa.
Ends
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