WeeklySA_AdminTRIBUTE: International news cameraman Theophilus “Spokes” Mashiyane risked his life to document apartheid’s brutality and carry the truth to the world. In this tribute, his long-time friend Rapitse Montsho reflects on their journey through the turbulent 1970s and 1980s — and asks whether today’s democracy honours the sacrifices made behind the lens…
By Rapitse Montsho
The 1976 uprising which prepared the solid foundation of the turning point of South Africa’s leaders would need to be considered on a variety of contributions.
In the first instance, it produced extraordinary and courageous young men and women who dared to criticise the absurdity and abuse of power by the racist apartheid regime.
In the second place, it provided a vital opportunity for those who prosecuted the struggle both internally and in exile to prepare for a rational and positive democratic order of sound administration systems.
Finally, it rallied most of the epic dedication of the video journalists of the 1980 who were attached to the ubiquitous mass movement of the 1980. The salt of the journalist was judged by your network, “the black book”.
The reason for recruiting black video journalists was based on the fact that white crews had a higher degree of visibility in black townships.
In the 1980s, the state of emergency made us meet on common grounds and that apartheid was archaic, no good, despicable and needed to be exposed internationally and to be replaced by an order that would work in a new democratic South Africa.
Years of national and social enslavement to our forebears had taught us that there is no loftier goal in life than the sacrifice for the liberation of one’s country and the emancipation of one’s people.
Spokes would make us ponder whether the courageous sacrifices he made and was dedicated for,is the life we are living for. At most we must admit that the international community that he informed through the lens about apartheid atrocities did not submit to the silencing narrative of apartheid absurdity.
South Africa’s poet laureate Mazizi Kunene referred to the 1976 youth as “the angry generation who do not run away from the fire”. He said “they are the children of iron, the fearless bees of the night, the wrathful, the volcanic mountain, the abiding anger of their ancestral forefathers”.
The international community laid bare possibilities hitherto unthinkable, of rallying on record time the international youth to participate in the struggle for the attainment of a new South Africa. This was a direct outcome of the information that video journalists provided.
With his own fortitude, Spokes engaged on how all resistance against apartheid must affirm the Supreme value of the rights of humans and how to endeavour with his special devices to strike hard at the apartheid regime.
Ultimately, Theophilus Sjuja “Spokes” Mashiyane, guided by the need to respond to the burning question as to whether our democracy has become compatible to the objectives we lived for, dedicatedly gathered news for international support .The ideals of the morality of democracy ought to inform us if our practices are responding to the sacrifices Spokes made.
From the perspective of reconciling our democracy and the purpose of our freedom springs the idea of what truly moulded us. Spokes became one of the central figures that gathered news and distributed it internationally.
Spokes would urge us all that the intense preoccupation of the 1980 youth was better known for their much-anticipated pattern of resistance, insistence on dignity and social harmony. The salt of democracy should not be overrun by the pressures of self-enrichment, insisted Spokes.
Spokes would gather and distribute the popular enthusiasm of the 1980 youth, which became the driving force towards a new order, and that it must be vindicated by the fulfilment of the ideals and power imbued to eliminate poverty and transform the lives of our people.
The ‘Black Book’: How Struggle Journalists Built Underground Networks
In the 1980s, under states of emergency and heavy censorship, journalism in South Africa was not simply a profession. It was an act of defiance.
For black video journalists like Theophilus “Spokes” Mashiyane, survival and access depended on what many referred to as “the black book” — an informal but vital network of contacts across townships, civic organisations, student movements and community leaders.
Unlike white crews, whose presence in black townships often drew immediate police scrutiny, black journalists could move with slightly less visibility. That did not make them safe. It made them essential.
The “black book” was not a literal directory alone. It represented trust — built painstakingly over time. It meant knowing who to call when unrest erupted, who could guide crews safely through volatile streets, who could verify information and who could warn of impending police raids.
Under apartheid’s security laws, journalists were detained, equipment confiscated and footage destroyed. Yet images continued to reach international broadcasters. That flow of visual evidence — funerals turned into mass protests, student marches met with teargas, mothers mourning children — reshaped global opinion.
The international anti-apartheid movement did not mobilise in a vacuum. It was fed by footage smuggled, couriered and broadcast abroad. Cameramen like Mashiyane helped ensure that apartheid’s violence could not be hidden behind official statements.
But the network served another purpose: solidarity.
Journalists shared tips, transport, safe houses and sometimes simply reassurance. In an era when the state framed dissent as subversion, these networks allowed independent documentation to survive.
Today, when anyone with a smartphone can capture events instantly, it is easy to forget how deliberate and dangerous visual reporting once was. In the 1980s, every frame carried risk.
The “black book” was more than contacts. It was infrastructure for truth.
