Bitching and moaning. For a cause

This is an edited version of former co-editor Irwin Manoim’s speech delivered at a reunion of those who were there when the Weekly Mail, now the Mail & Guardian, was founded 40 years ago on 14 June

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It is only right that after 40 years, I begin with a formal thank you to those whose diligent hard work under the most trying of circumstances, often late at night and over weekends, affecting health, family and friendships, and yet sadly unappreciated by many of us, for which I now apologise, nonetheless made the early Weekly Mail the legendary success it was. Not all could be here tonight, some are now elderly, enfeebled, deceased, bibulous or still in hiding.

Thus it is that I would like to warmly thank Mr PW Botha, Mr FW de Klerk, General Magnus Malan, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Mr Adriaan Vlok, Major Craig Williamson, and perhaps most of all, a man whose dedication to our cause never wavered, Mr Stoffel Botha. Ngiyabonga.

I now turn to those of you in this room. A very warm welcome to those of you I still recognise. A very warm welcome also to those of you I no longer recognise. A very warm welcome to those of you who no longer recognise me. A warm welcome to those who were blonde and are now grey, and to those who were brunette and are now blonde, to those whose hairlines now begin below the neck, and to those who look younger and lovelier with each passing year, thanks to the miracles of modern science.

I’m sure none of you wish to be bored yet again with the hoary story of how the Weekly Mail began life 40 years ago, which is why I shall nonetheless proceed. Co-editor Anton Harber and I met at his dining room table in Yeoville where we ate peanuts and chips and drank beer and in between mouthfuls, dreamt up a newspaper called the