Mmegi ranked with big brands on Madiba
Correspondent | Thursday December 12, 2013 17:13
After President Jacob Zuma broke the news that the giant had slept permanently, serious news publications the world over - including Botswana’s only private daily, Mmegi - carried Mandela’s image on their front pages as the main story.
The fact that the news spread like bushfire did not surprise anyone, given the towering figure that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was.
The world is in unison that Madiba, as he was affectionately known, has positively changed the way the world views itself.
For someone who was beaten, chained, tortured, had charges of subversion and treason framed against, and was ultimately thrown in jail as an enemy of the state, Mandela surprised the world when he stepped out of jail after 27 years and preached reconciliation and forgiveness.
“Mr De Klerk and I continue to be political opponents. However, I have accepted to receive the Nobel Peace Prize with him to signify (the) reconciliation that South Africa requires in order to move our nation forward into a brighter future,” Mandela said in Europe.
A random survey of international news publications over the weekend showed that Mandela’s magic, even in death, had spread far and wide in an instant. The headlines ranged from his prison cell number 46664 to his clan name and his famous fist of defiance and dignity on the front pages and covers of many international news publications from Brazil to Botswana, Sweden to Swaziland, the United States of America to the United Arab Emirates, to name but a few of what was available at the East Gate CNA bookstore last Saturday morning.
But it was the Daily Mail of England that had, in my estimation, the gripping headline: Death of a Colossus, it stated.
Indeed, Mandela was a colossus far larger than life itself. Then it was Time magazine whose cover page characterised Mandela as: Protester. Prisoner. Peacemaker! Commented Wazha Ditsheko shortly after President Jacob Zuma’s late night announcement: “I would imagine that any serious editor would either have ‘stop press’ or pull out some stories in their edition to lead with Mandela’s death. That is the biggest news story ever, and if they lead with something other than Nelson Mandela’s death, the editors would have gotten it altogether wrong. “It does not require one to go to a journalism school. It is common sense that readers will want to hear about his death. I have no clue what makes news newsworthy, but I definitely would run with Mandela’s story.” It was a celebration of the work of the editors of Mmegi whose Friday edition would have gone to bed by the time Zuma made the stunning – though not unexpected – announcement on Thursday night.
Alongside Mmegi, other major international news brands that led with the icon’s death include The New Yorker, Spain’s leading daily El Pais which dedicated its first 13 pages to Mandela, Germany’s Der Spiegel, Berlin’s daily Taggespiegel, France’s L’Equipe, Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter, China Morning Post, the United States’ The Onion, CNN and the BBC.
In South Africa, SABC television channels and radio stations, as well as The Star, The Times, Beeld and Pretoria News newspapers informed the nation of the loss of its greatest gift.
News of Mandela’s death was also broken on popular social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, which went ablaze early Friday morning, according to Saturday Star newspaper.
By ENOLE DITSEKO