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Karima Brown during the protest against SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng in front of Auckland Studios on July 6, 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images / Beeld / Felix Dlangamandla) Karima Brown during the protest against SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng in front of Auckland Studios on July 6, 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The SACP lashed out at Motsoeneng for using the 90% local quota to “divide workers in the creative industries and sow confusion among the public.” (Photo by Gallo Images / Beeld / Felix Dlangamandla)
Veteran journalist and political analyst Karima Brown has died at the age of 53. In a career that saw her occupy several prominent positions in the SA media, Brown was never far from controversy. But he wasn’t afraid of him either. In death, even his detractors pay tribute to one of the strongest voices in the South African media.
Karima Brown was always more than a journalist. Her outspokenness ensured that she became history herself multiple times in a tumultuous career. In more than one case, she seemed to pay the price of being a very confident woman in a society that still mistrusts such figures. But Brown would never allow criticism, from the public, colleagues in the media or the government, to silence his voice. She remained to the last indefatigable and impossible to ignore.
Born Karima Semaar in Cape Town in 1967, Brown, by most accounts, did not have a “political awakening” as she grew up with politics already flowing through her veins. His father, Achmat Semaar, was a respected Mitchell’s Plain community leader and ANC activist. Brown followed in his footsteps as a youth activist and was active in the Cape Youth Congress (Cayco) in the 1980s as a student at the University of the Western Cape. When the South African Student Congress (Sasco) was formed, she was part of the Western Cape leadership group.
“I’ve known her since she was a youth activist and she always questioned everything,” said Ryland Fisher, a veteran media figure. Daily maverick Thursday after news of Brown’s death broke.
“That is a good attribute that you must have if you want to be a journalist, and she incorporated it into her journalism.”
In the course of a career that took off in the early 1990s, Brown held some of the most prominent positions in the South African media. They included Working daypolitical editor, presenting the Karima Brown Show in 702, launching Forbes Women Africa and serving as group executive editor at Independent Media. At the time of his death, Brown was hosting a current affairs show on help called The Fix.
Although Brown’s journalistic legacy is undeniably complex, she will be remembered as someone who was utterly fearless in keeping politicians’ feet on fire when she believed they were guilty of wrongdoing. Some came to enjoy the challenge; Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula tweeted that he found Brown’s passing “heartbreaking” and would miss his “robust commitments.”
Fisher says Brown’s political activism always influenced her journalism, and she “never hid her political leanings.”
Brown drew criticism for this in 2015 when she was photographed alongside Independent Media editor Vukani Mde wearing ANC colors at a political rally. But his intimacy with the ruling party also gave him an insider tip on developments within the ANC that was the envy of many political journalists.
Previous Working day editor Peter Bruce said Newzroom afrika on Thursday that Brown was the ideal political editor, because she was able to answer the perennial main question of South African politics: “What the heck is going on in the ANC? Karima knew it ”.
Among those who paid tribute to Brown after his death was Independent Media CEO Iqbal Surve, who said Brown would be remembered for “the important contribution she made while she was the Executive Editor of Independent Media, during a time of transition and transformation of the group “.
Another perspective is that Brown served as Surve’s facilitator to empty the independent media and precipitate its decline, but this criticism would not have fazed her. Nor is it universal. Previous Mercury Editor Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya posted on social media that he had Brown to thank: “I know I would not have been the editor of The Mercury without your assent ”.
“She pissed off a lot of people and made a lot of enemies,” says Fisher, but Brown wouldn’t be intimidated by following her convictions. She was a staunch advocate of media transformation and a more widespread commitment to “uplifting the poorest in society and wanting to change society for the better for the majority,” in Fisher’s words.
One of the most dramatic conflicts of his career came in the run-up to the 2019 general election, when Brown took on EFF leader Julius Malema over sending a message by mistake Intended for colleagues in an EFF WhatsApp group. EFF supporters sent Brown death and rape threats on Twitter after Malema posted the journalist’s number. Brown took Malema and the EFF onto the court and won.
As always, Brown described it as a matter of principle. “No politician, including Malema, will cyberbully or censor me,” he said at the time.
Very few elements of Brown’s life were simple. Her marriage ended with the revelation that her ex-husband had served as an apartheid spy, a fact that Brown always claimed to be unaware of. But an indisputable element was the love he had for his only son, his son Mikhail Brown.
Poet and activist Lebogang Mashile wrote that Brown was “empathetic and caring, especially towards her son, for whom her whole being was poured out. She adored him with a pride that can only come from a mother’s heart. “
Other friends expressed their devastation over the loss. Former 702 host and close friend Eusebius McKaiser described himself as “broken.”
Despite the struggle she brought to her media persona, she could also be warm and fun-loving and made no secret of her taste in cooking. Brown also served as a mentor to many young journalists and was particularly assiduous in supporting the careers of young women of color.
In the next few days, a lot will be written about Brown’s career, and some of it will not be complementary. Brown would undoubtedly have shrugged. As one colleague put it, “His whole personality was, ‘This is me, take it or leave it.’ DM
