Adriaan Vlok - My part in his downfall

July 18th, 2007

It is a small thing forgotten by all except me and my immediate family, I suspect, but I had a part to play in the downfall of cabinet minister Adriaan Vlok (now facing murder charges). Those around in the early 1990s, might remember that I confronted him with evidence of Inkathagate on live television one Sunday night. He was demoted a few days later.

It is worth recounting the story because it was the first and last time the SABC allowed a rambunctious, angry, independent journalist to go head-to-head with a cabinet minister. And it made for great television, if I say so myself.

The window opened by the SABC was the result of a confluence of unpredictable circumstances in 1991. The Weekly Mail, which I then edited, had published an expose of secret police funding for Inkatha, a momentous story in that transitional period when the IFP and the ANC were locked in political battle during negotiations.

They asked me to come to the studio on the night before publication and discuss what the paper was going to publish.

You have to remember that the SABC was in the first stage of trying to transform itself. It was firmly in the hands of the old guard of apartheid, but they were trying to show that they had broken away from the National Party in a last-ditch bid to keep their jobs.

When I got there, I discovered that Vlok’s henchman and liar-in-chief, an ex-journo named Craig Kotze, was locked in discussions with the powers that were still in power at the SABC. They emerged to say that I was not going on air because it was unfair to ambush poor Craig.

The weekend newspapers made a meal of it: Police intervene to have journalist thrown off air at last minute!

The SABC people, realising belatedly that this was not the way to show you were independent and open-minded, invited me back on the Sunday night along with Vlok himself.

But this time I had the initiative. I did two things. First, I went past my office and picked up a huge legal file. I could not show Vlok that we only had a few bits of paper with the evidence, so I thought it would be useful to wave around the newspaper’s entire legal papers for the year.

Secondly, I took my lawyer, the wily and combative David Dison, and before we went on air (and only just before, I might say, to make it difficult for them to say no) we laid out a set of conditions for my appearance. The piece would go out live and unedited; I could speak directly to the Minister; it would be in English; and so on …

Like all good lawyers, Dison said these conditions were non-negotiable. And then we got ready to negotiate. To our amazement, they agreed to everything without hesitation. Without even asking or telling Vlok, who waiting in the studio.

VlI recall the amazing site of Kotze applying lip ice to Vlook as we walked in. I banged down on the desk the huge file I was carrying and Vlok jumped so high he almost swallowed the lip ice.

I had him.

The interview started off the way all SABC interviews did then. The presenter asked a tame question and allowed Vlok to go on and on with his side of the story. It let it run for a while, brushed aside the presenter and began to throw questions at him.

It was an extraordinary moment, as I have said, because this was live television and it was unheard of to confront a minister in this way. I was rude, aggressive, dismissive, contemptuous and I was waving in the air a large file which he thought was full of evidence that would damn him. (There was some evidence in there, I should add, but certainly not an impressive file-full.)

After about 15 minutes of this, he was on the defensive and in trouble. The producer was signalling time-up to me and I was ignoring him, knowing that he had promised not to cut anything. I went on and on, until the producer was jumping up and down, and finally I said: “Mr Vlok, if we show you have been lying, as we intend to do in our paper next week, will you resign?”

He said he would resign if it was good for the country. It was all over. It was obvious what was good for the country, even to him.

I should add that I have no regrets for my bad behaviour. I certainly have no intention of washing the man’s feet.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, TV