Dear Ferial,
I'm writing this open letter to you as a colleague in the media, a journalist, and an editor.
It is with sadness and irritation that I re-read your opinion piece on Saturday, which you originally wrote in 2019, but could not resist re-posting on the back of the news that we at Independent Media, had our salaries deferred.
I am fully aware that I have been referred to in media circles as “Survé’s Chief Cheerleader”, but irrespective of that moniker, your base attack on the non-executive chairman of Independent Media, Dr Iqbal Survé, was and still is, uncalled for and without merit. It is also unprofessional and smacks of your desperation to grab the headlines – for yourself.
Is fighting our media colleagues in the public space really newsworthy of public interest? Is this what the once venerable state of journalism has sunk to, that our focus is on taking competitors out of the running, so that we can sit back and feel we achieved something spectacular/explosive/narrative forming?
But who is this all for? Not the readers of the South African public at large. They truly couldn’t care less when they have so many real daily issues to surmount. Is this vitriol because the journalists who write it are horrible people? No, not really, they are employees mostly following instructions.
So, where do you sit in this equation Ferial?
In Afrikaans we say: "Verlekker jou in ander se ondergang, en gun niemand 'n plek onder die son nie", which roughly translates to: Delight in the downfall of others, and grant no one a place under the sun.
But this attitude doesn't sit well with me, since we should all have a place in the sun to warm our bones.
As an award-winning journalist, and by all accounts an intelligent individual, I am surprised that you are not more aware that the global print media industry is faced with massive challenges. It is not just Independent Media.
In South Africa, we have the added difficulty of an economy on the brink of a recession, our citizens are getting poorer by the day, and a massive portion of our people feel hopeless, because they are jobless. They have families to feed, rent, bonds and debt to pay.
Our country is already in chaos, it does not need anyone, least of all you, to pit us, as management and the executive of Independent Media, against our own staff. Or, against our main shareholders, who to date, have coughed up more than R1 billion to support this company – and not at the expense of mass retrenchment like so many of our competitors and your cohort.
In the piece you re-tweeted this past weekend, you wrote that: "Iqbal Survé was somebody I looked up to ... He speaks with the lilt of the Cape Town townships and seemed earnest in his endeavours to set right the apartheid economy ... ”
And then, you copy and pasted excerpts from the book ‘Paper Tiger’ by former editors, Alide Dasnois and Chris Whitfield, "both editors and news executives, albeit both short-lived, at Sekunjalo Independent Media (SIM), it's clear that Survé is in fact none of the things he projected to be".
Really? You were there and had first-hand knowledge of what transpired?
As I thought ... nowhere to be seen.
Still, as history has shown us, Dr Survé does make for great headlines – usually in other papers and publications – albeit they are inaccurate and driven by a propaganda agenda.
He has often been made a mockery of, for being in his own newspapers, but I know that he has not appeared in our papers anywhere near the number of times the Daily Maverick, for example, has featured him – no less than 119 articles and counting. Or, for that matter, News24 that has 60 stories where he headlines – and this is just since the start of the Mpati Commission of Inquiry.
As aforementioned, and reported on, there appears to be a concerted campaign to destroy Independent Media. Much of this, aimed at cutting off its head – Dr Survé.
Your recent muckraking re-tweet of an old story reinforces proof of your continuing con of the great South African public in this regard.
However, let me re-introduce you to the real Dr Survé.
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr Survé cut his teeth in the medical field as a physician, graduating from medical school, followed by a specialist degree in sports science, before pursuing a successful business career at the dawn of democracy in South Africa.
In 2013, Dr Survé and a group of forward-thinking investors, took on the challenge of returning Independent Media to South African ownership and refreshing the venerable media organisation, which was largely untransformed.
Dr Survé recognised that the modernisation and transformation of Independent Media needed to go far beyond the streamlining of the business and the introduction of technology – Independent Media needed to represent the voices of the broader yet still new democratic South Africa.
Under his guidance, the Independent Media Group today remains South Africa’s largest print media house with 19 major newspaper titles, and has evolved to not only embrace, but champion, the new digital era.
He is also an active and ardent philanthropist, contributing to several local and international organisations across a very broad spectrum of interests. He has been internationally recognised for the extraordinary work he has done, for example, his efforts to combat child trafficking.
In 2019, Dr Survé received the prestigious International Friendship Award from the Queen of Spain at a ceremony in Madrid, Spain. The award was given in recognition of his efforts to foster Africa and world relations, focusing on the promotion of entrepreneurship, communications, social commitment and his efforts to end prejudice.
Through Sekunjalo Philanthropies, Dr Survé and his family have contributed more than $100 million (R1.8 billion) to social justice initiatives worldwide. At home, he contributes to arts and culture initiatives and has created the Imagination Awards to recognise people at community level who are changing people’s lives – for the better.
Dr Survé is also one of South Africa’s leading tech investors and involved in several multinational institutions and global organisations like Siemens, SAAB, British Telecoms to name just a few.
He is also a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and gatherings.
He is a founding member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), and a founding member of the BRICS Business Council, a veteran participant at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. He has served as the first chairman of the Global Growth Companies (GGC) Advisory Board, and vice-chairman of the Global Agenda Council (GAC) for Emerging Multinationals.
Dr Survé also served as chairperson of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) Advisory Board at the University of Cape Town and received the Freedom of the City of New Orleans for his contribution and commitment to social justice initiatives.
In 2017, he was appointed chairman of the South African chapter of the BRICS Business Council. Dr Survé, was also appointed to the First Council of the Belt and Road News Network (BRNN) in Beijing. He was the only South African to be invited to serve on the First Council, which represents 26 countries and 39 media organisations.
In 2017, Dr Survé was appointed to the Forum Member Adviser’s board of the World Economic Forum, and as a board member of the Stewardship Council for the Entertainment and Systems initiative – one of the most prestigious System Initiative boards for the World Economic Forum.
He is a participant member of the G20 meeting and serves on G20 Task Teams, as well as the UNGA private sector forum.
This is a man who is still worthy of being looked up to, this is still a man who is deserving of respect.
So, instead of following your example and launching into an attack of my own against you, which given some of the details I have been sent could make for interesting reading to many South Africans, I would rather take the road less travelled, and meet you.
Face to face, so we can look each other in the eye and discuss the details of what I have been sent about you in a responsible manner – especially considering its contents that would damage your career beyond repair.
Are you willing?
Dr Survé’s other acknowledgements and involvement include:
⦁ Alumnus of the HRH Prince of Wales Business and Environment Programme
⦁ A patron of the South Africa-Italy Summit
⦁ Co-chairman of the South Africa-Saudi Arabia Business Council (SASABC)
⦁ A patron of the Munich based GISSAID
⦁ A patron of the Swedish based World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC)
⦁ A founder member of the Siemens Global Sustainability Advisory Board
⦁ Honoured twice with the Director’s award for his contribution to tertiary education by the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business
⦁ Former Finland Honorary Consul in Cape Town
Dr Iqbal Survé is an alumnus of the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Graduate School of Business (GSB), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Harvard University, with degrees in medicine, science, and business.
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