A Memory of the Early Years by Tony Grogan

Founding the Cape Town Press Club

Clearly, a more formal institution was needed to serve as a gathering place for the city’s journalists and to further the interests of the free press and the media in general. The main mover behind the establishment of a Cape Town Press Club to further this purpose was the Cape Times political editor, Tom Copeland. The first meeting of the Press Club which has kept it format over the years was held in Trust Bank Hotel in Adderley Street then owned by the peppermint banker, Jan S Marais, who introduced a modern public relations approach to banking, offering clients the enticement of peppermints and the vision of winsome banking staff in short skirts and tall hairdos when they came in on business. This was the main venue at the time, but the venue changed from time to time depending on numbers and which restaurant or hotel could offer the cheapest and most acceptable menu. The first speaker and the man who launched the Cape Town Press Club was ironically not a lover or admirer of press freedom. He was the then Prime Minister, BJ Vorster. known for his hardline views on apartheid and public order.

Membership and Early Meetings

At first, membership was confined to working journalists but was soon expanded to include anyone involved in writing or broadcasting, such as public relations and advertising, or communications in general. The Press Club lunches very soon became popular as a platform for pubic figures to sound off on their areas of expertise and air their views as they were almost guaranteed reportage in the local press. It also became a useful place for reporters and others to rub shoulders with important political personages and people in the know, especially as speakers could elect to speak off the record and reveal colourful bits of information they preferred not to be publicised – an agreement never dishonoured. On one occasion, the Minister of Agriculture,  Danie Schoeman, was asked if he could explain the vagaries of the government’s Sports policy, administered by Minister of Sport, Piet Koornhof, notorious for changing his mind and speaking in indecipherable riddles. Mr Schoeman paused for a moment and then admitted he didn’t know because he hadn’t spoken to Piet since midday.

Becoming Editorial Cartoonist

I was fortunate to be appointed editorial cartoonist to replace my much-loved and admired predecessor, David Marais, who had set a standard of witty satire and piercing political comment, which was going to prove extremely difficult and challenging to follow in the years to come.

By the time I joined the Press Club, I was reasonably practised at drawing caricatures, something that had absorbed me since childhood. In fact, by the age of twenty, I had probably done  Gladwell’s ten thousand hours of practice to achieve considerable expertise in drawing and was well on the way to developing the skill of capturing the nuances of character and fleeting expression, which is the essence of the art of caricature.  One also has to develop the ability to draw spontaneously and at speed, given the fact that one’s subject is not posing and one is drawing the face in motion while trying to pin down his or her most characteristic expression and gesture. That’s why I grind my teeth when someone shows me a rendering, purporting to be a caricature of themselves, but really only a laboured photographic likeness of themselves with a large head on a small body.

Sketching Speakers and a New Tradition

I developed the habit of carrying a sketchbook with me, and if I didn’t happen to have one with me at Press Club lunches, I’d scribble on the menu, serviette or whatever piece of paper happened to be available. Dr Chris Barnard was one of the early speakers to be asked to address the Press Club. He gave a fascinating account of the first heart transplant, but it was when he started talking about the international reaction and his celebratory status that followed that he became quite emotional.

“I’m a doctor,” he said and now all of a sudden I was expected to be an expert on philosophy, psychology and politics”, at which point he became quite choked up and dabbed at his eyes with a serviette.

I did a quick sketch of him on a menu, which I asked him to sign and which is the earliest in a collection of signed drawings of guest speakers at the Press Club made over the past fifty years.  It has become a tradition, and what I have been told is part of the incentive to speakers to accept speaking invitations to the club, to have a framed caricature of themselves presented to them after their address. I would also have time to do a second one, which I asked the speaker to sign for my own collection, which now amounts to an interesting, and I hope valuable, archival record of distinguished people who have lived in or visited Cape Town over the last fifty years.

Reactions to Caricatures

Most of the guest speakers would not be aware that they were being drawn while they were speaking and would react with surprise, embarrassment or shock when presented with the drawing. I might say that the caricatures I have done at the press club lunches have usually been appreciated by their recipients, as they have been quite gentle. They were, after all, presented as a gift to speakers, and it would not have been appropriate to offend him or her with a version of themselves done in the satirical style of my editorial cartoons, which, depending on the message and context, usually depicted figures represented as ridiculous, bizarre or inane.

I consider myself very privileged and thankful for the Press Club for giving me the opportunity to render this service,  for their support, kindness and encouragement, and for giving me an opportunity to meet and get to know such an array of interesting people and be presented with the challenge to draw the – Not to forget thanks for all the free lunches.

The Cape Town Press Club must be unique in South Africa for the quality and range of its speakers, and that is despite the claims of the pretentiously named National Press Club in Johannesburg, which has periodically claimed to be the authentic press club of the country.

Certainly, no other press club in South Africa and possibly the world could boast to have had three Nobel prize winners address their members in the space of four months – Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk and Archbishop Tutu.

Some of the more notable figures I have drawn were those done during South Africa’s celebrated liberation years during the nineties, when so many celebrity figures were flocking to our shores and beating a path to Nelson Mandela’s door to meet the great man, revered as the politician of the century. We had national leaders, politicians, film stars, beauty queens, distinguished sportsmen, singers, writers and artists flooding in to share something of their aura, and the Press Club committee was quick to seize the opportunity to invite a host of these people to address its meetings.

To end with, a short note on the various journalists who have served as chairpersons of the Cape  Town Press Club. As mentioned, Tom Copeland was the founder chairman, followed by –and here I’m wondering whether anyone was tasked with keeping a reliable record- if my memory serves me correctly, Ted Partridge, John Scott, Alan Dugmore…, and then long-standing service of Donwald Pressley and the inimitable Barry Streek. Donwald had a dry wit, and his speaker introductions were usually spiced with a few wry comments about the speaker’s accomplishments, especially if he or she was a politician. He was also capable of springing surprises. When Zuma was invited to address the club, he sprang a surprise on me by asking me to ask the guests to be upstanding for the then deputy president’s arrival. With a remarkably apt Freudian slip, I announced his entry with the words, “Please rise for the vice-president. As it turned out, it was only when he became president that he became a master of vice, so my introduction was a bit premature.

Remembering Barry Streek and Fellow Journalists

I say the ‘inimitable Barry Streek, because he was one of the great liberal journalists, and a passionate spokesman for justice and liberty who chafed under the injustices and cruelty of apartheid and fought against it with every fibre of his journalistic being. He was instrumental in getting the Swedes onside in this battle, and they made considerable financial contributions to the cause of liberation. As chairman of the Press Club, this gave impetus to this aim, although he was a lousy speaker. He spoke incredibly quickly, with a slight stutter, and I often wondered whether people could hear what he was saying. Still, I think people admired and loved him for his integrity, energy and eccentricity, even if at times they couldn’t follow what he was talking about. I was very privileged to share an office with Barry and Anthony, another Johnston, a very astute political journalist. I suppose I could have had my own office, but I used to find it very helpful listening to these guys interviewing politicians over the phone or in the office, which helped to give insight into political matters and was very helpful in formulating ideas for my cartoons.

Notable and Controversial Speakers

I close with a few examples of the more celebrated personages to have graced the podium to address the Cape Town Press Club during its early years. I’m not sure whether ‘graced’ is the appropriate word but when when we were still lunching at the Trust Bank hotel restaurant, Eugene Terblanche leader of the AWB (Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging), the extreme right wing organization, which was preparing for Armaggedon if the Nat party moved any further in a more enlightened direction and introduced mixed sports teams and open parks, was invited to address the club. He arrived flanked by his sinister ‘Ystergaard’ bodyguards sporting their scarcely disguised Nazi insignia. They had not distinguished themselves on a previous occasion. They stayed close to their leader, alert to the danger of any liberal threat. They were looking for the Minister of Police’s office, but unfortunately lost their way and conducted him to the main post office.

Well aware that he was about to address the hated, communist–inclined liberal press, he immediately launched a tirade against all forms of liberalism, socialism, or any other sort of ‘ism’  to the left of Genghis Khan. His tone was that of a ferocious Old Testament prophet, fulminating against the sins of the world, ranting and raving with such volume that a representative of a business conference being held next door came through to ask if we couldn’t turn down the racket as their members couldn’t think. This was one occasion I didn’t do a drawing for presentation as I thought the speaker too vile to deserve one for an offensive, cantankerous address.

Another badly–timed address was delivered by the writer, Laurence van der Post, a great admirer of Prince Mangasuthu Buthelezi. He launched into an intemperate attack on Nelson Mandela, calling him a communist and terrorist,  a man who had recently been released from prison on Robben Island after 22 years and had emerged as a man of grace and reconciliation, so the speech went down like a lead balloon.

Most speakers accepted that guests of the Press Club were independant thinkers and entitled to their own opinions, but not Tina Joemat-Pieterson, who had as Minister of Fisheries and Forestry presided over the near collapse of the South African fishing industry and refused to speak unless the DA shadow minister of fisheries, whose name I can’t remember, be asked to leave the room as he was asking uncomfortable questions. The Press Club did not cover itself with glory as the chairman obliged, and it was generally felt that under the circumstances Mrs Joemat–Pieterson should rather have been the one asked to leave the room.

Another guest speaker, who spoke soon after the first democratic election was the commander of APLA, the military wing of the PAC, which in the dying days of apartheid had perpetrated a number of acts of terrors, including an attack on a congregation in the St James Church in Kenilworth during a church service and many others around the country. He offered a  very gentle, but scarcely plausible,  rational for these unspeakable acts of terror, lulling the audience into acceptance of his position at the time, but there was an audible gasp from the audience when during question time an elegant lady rose to identify herself as the mother of a precious daughter who had lost her life in the bombing of the Heidelberg Tavern in Observatory. This was a particularly awkward moment for me, but I do remember that he handled it with considerable tact and sympathy, invited the lady to meet with him, and I do remember it was reported that later they had become mutually respected friends. It was one of those rare and touching moments which highlighted the importance of trust, compassion and honest human communication.

Over the past fifty years, the Press Club has hosted an extraordinary variety of speakers who have informed, entertained and inspired their audiences and who have very often used the opportunity to make some very important announcements. It is a pity there was not a regular scribe or secretary appointed to record or secure a copy of the speeches, which would have made in their entirety a very valuable archival record. Perhaps it is a thought for the future.