Max du Preez (born 10 March 1951) is a South African author, columnist and documentary filmmaker and was the founding editor of '' Vrye Weekblad''. Vrye Weekblad Online or Vrye Weekblad II was launched on 5 April 2019 again with Max du Preez as editor.

Life

Max du Preez is a writer, columnist and documentary filmmaker. Between 1982 and 1988, Du Preez was the Political Correspondent for various publications including '' Beeld'', '' Financial Mail'', ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' and ''

Business Day A business day normally means any day except a legal holiday. It may also mean a business day of operation, any of the days an organization operates. It depends on the local workweek which is dictated by local customs, religions, and business ...

''. He won the

Nat Nakasa Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa (12 May 193714 July 1965), better known as Nat Nakasa, was a South African journalist and short story writer. Early life Nat Nakasa was born in outside Durban, South Africa, on 12 May 1937; his mother Alvina was a teac ...

Award for fearless reporting in 2008.

Vrye Weekblad

Du Preez founded the Vrye Weekblad, an

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

-language weekly newspaper, in November 1988 and its progressive successor Vrye Weekblad Online in 2019. During his tenure as editor-in-chief, the newspaper's offices were bombed and Du Preez received death threats as a result of the paper's opposition to

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. He was sentenced to six months in jail for quoting

Joe Slovo Yossel Mashel "Joe" Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995) was a South African politician and Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Com ...

, the then leader of the

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by t ...

and a banned person. The Vrye Weekblad broke the news of the

Vlakplaas Vlakplaas (an Afrikaans term meaning "flat farm") is a farm 20 km west of Pretoria that served as the headquarters of counterinsurgency unit C1 (later called C10) of the Security Branch (South Africa), Security Branch of the apartheid-era S ...

Death Squads and the role of its commander, Dirk Coetzee.

Dismissal from the SABC

In 1999, Du Preez was dismissed by the

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

from his position as the executive editor of '' Special Assignment'', an investigative television show, after he objected when a documentary was barred from being shown. Though initially it was simply stated that his contract would not be renewed, the SABC later said he had been dismissed for gross insubordination. The decision led to a public campaign to call for his reinstatement and the handling by the SABC led to complaints to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa. The incident was seen as symptomatic of a public broadcaster voluntarily transforming itself into a state propaganda apparatus.

"Womaniser" remark

Rumours that then-President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

was a philanderer were controversially brought to light by a comment Du Preez made on a national radio show in 2001. During a discussion on the lack of examination of the private life of Mbeki, Du Preez said: "He is seen as a womaniser. It is publicly known and I think we should start talking about this, that the president has this kind of personal life. I'm not saying it's scandalous. He's a womaniser." The remark was subsequently carried on the front page of '' The Citizen'', leading to multiple complaints, apologies and a statement by a provincial branch of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

that it accepted "declaration of war by Max du Preez and his political masters who have unleashed an unprecedented vitriol against the ANC, its leadership, the President and its supporters."

Awards

* 1991 - Louis M. Lyons Award for conscience and integrity in journalism * 1996 - Excellence in Journalism award from the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Southern Africa * 2006 - Yale Globalist International Journalist of the Year * 2008 - Nat Nakasa Award for fearless reporting

References

External links

''Pale Native'' at Google Books

Max Du Preez in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme
''The Forum''
Max du Preez
''

Freedom Collection Freedom Collection is a digital repository sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Southern Methodist University's campus in Dallas, Texas. The collection documents major players in human rights and ...

'' interview {{DEFAULTSORT:Du Preez, Max South African writers South African newspaper editors Afrikaner people Afrikaner anti-apartheid activists Living people Alumni of the University of Exeter 1951 births 20th-century South African journalists 21st-century South African journalists