Preacher's son, press pioneer

Memoir is a gripping account of journalistic bravery, father-son reckonings and resilience

- Kibo Ngowi

When I meet Gavin Evans on a Friday morning, it's to talk about his memoir Son of a Preacher Man, which he's visiting South Africa to promote.

But I'm more interested in hearing what it was like to report for the Mail & Guardian in the dying days of apartheid. Evans was one of the first reporters hired by the paper.

It was the mid-Eighties, and Evans had just started his career in Gqeberha, then known as Port Elizabeth. "My journalism career started at the Eastern Province Herald in '84," he recalls.

"There was a company then called South African Associated Newspapers. They had a three-month programme and all the new journalists went through it. After that, you started at places like the Eastern Province Herald or the Post. I was on the Herald."

Evans' journey would soon take him to the Rand Daily Mail, Business Day and eventually the pioneering Weekly Mail, which would later become the Mail & Guardian.

"I knew Anton Harber because he'd also been at the Rand Daily Mail," Evans explains.

"Irwin Manoim was there too, and Clive Cope was around. They were the three who set it up. I went along to the opening meeting and came up with story ideas. Initially, I was freelancing while working for the SAN Transvaal News Bureau. But then Anton offered me a job."

For Evans, joining the Weekly Mail was more than just a career move, it was a leap into a newsroom that operated with a shared spirit of purpose.

"It was a wonderful working environment," he says. "Everyone got paid the same, from editors to everyone else. I don't know about the cleaning staff, but for all the journalists, it was the same salary. It was a brave decision but it worked for a while."

At the Weekly Mail, Evans carved out a distinctive voice.