I vividly remember the year and the events of it. It was on September 3 2007, the day Gift Leremi was involved in a car accident. I was still a first-year media studies student at the University of Limpopo. That day our media law lecturer Vusimusi Mabuza prepared a media ethics lecture for us as it coincided with the death of Leremi.
What prompted him to familiarise us with the to-do and what-not-to-do as a journalist was the way in which journalists reported about the death of Leremi. We were ordered to divide ourselves into groups for a media ethics debate. One of the groups was led by the recently disgraced Aubrey Mothombeni.
During the debate and presentation, you would be convinced that Mothombeni was not a student but rather a lecturer passionate about his work. His style of presentation coupled with his wisdom was an envy of many students.
The born precocious whiz kid from Sekgosese in Limpopo was the last one to present for his group. Remember, in Sepedi they say mo ja morago ke kgoshi, loosely translated as "he who eats the last is a king", but can also interchangeably denote that after all that has been said, the last one with a final say will formally wrap up things.
After the presentations, Mabuza would shout out the results of each group from bottom to top. As Mothombeni’s group was not mentioned after group 5 to 4, it was obvious it was the overall winner of the groups that was preceded by the rapturous applause and screams from other students.
We all knew that with Mothombeni leading the group nothing was expected besides the debate being an uncontested one. He really comprehended the required standards, values and principles that need to be applied by media practitioners. He mastered all that ethos in high esteem.
These memories are brought by the report in Sunday World that fingered him as the hand in a cookie jar that solicited a bribe from municipal officials. Knowing him, it was expected that I was left gobsmacked as I have been following his career diligently since he started reporting for Sunday World.
Judging by his writing style, it was not a surprise that Mothombeni is a shrewd journalist who I envisaged the world to be his oyster since our varsity days. As an intrepid journalist, Mothombeni did not hold his horses when reporting stories. Unfortunately, his no-fear-no-favour approach was to be replaced by brown envelope journalism.
Seeing that the corruption net has finally caught him, Mothombeni is also said to have tendered his resignation before he could appear at the disciplinary committee (DC) hearing. For his part, he opted not to attend the DC as he might have felt it will make the allegations disappear or he might have felt that he was being treated like a criminal, and that the employer can prove nothing.
Unfortunately, the company opted to continue with the DC in his absence. Mothombeni’s refusal to sully his reputation is reminiscent to Jayson Thomas Blair, a former American journalist who worked for The New York Times who resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication and plagiarism in his stories.
Seeing that his wings were about to be clipped, he tried to play duck and dive to save his already damaged reputation. He later published a memoir of this period, titled Burning Down My Masters' House (2004), recounting his career, and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder after his resignation.
While journalists are expected to be the ears and eyes of the society, in Mothombeni’s case, while he failed to uphold the ethical standards of fair reporting, he has also forgotten Mabuza’s erudite media ethics. A journalist who was entrusted into bringing those who are found to be in the wrong also became a kleptomaniac who extorted money from politicians. He cannot be the only one who is found guilty of such offences but Fundudzi Media acted nobly to ensure that any form of nefariousness is condemned while the company’s reputation remains intact.
It has been widely reported that it is a new norm that journalists often receive money to pay off their bonds and was reported that even Ranjeni Munusamy was in cahoots with political bigwigs. Evidence was also presented before the Zondo commission that showed how the media is involved in political power involving millions of rand.
The continuing brown envelope not only puts media freedom under threat, but it also denies readers the opportunity to hear the truth uncovered by journalists. If this is not curbed, mainstream media will surely die the same way social media is slowly killing journalism. I can unashamedly say that Aubrey Mothombeni is a disgrace to the 2007 media studies class.
• Mogotlane is a public servant and social commentator
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