This year marks the 47th anniversary of Black Wednesday, which commemorates the day in 1977 when the apartheid regime silenced independent voices by closing certain publications.
To reflect on the importance of this day, the National Press Club, in partnership with the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the family of the late social activist Percy Qoboza, will host the 14th Annual Percy Qoboza Memorial Lecture this Wednesday at Unisa, Muckleneuk Campus in Pretoria, from 6pm.
The memorial lecture is held annually in commemoration of October 19, 1977, the date on which the apartheid government banned The World, Weekend World and other publications.
The lecture also honours the late Percy Qoboza, editor of The World and later of City Press newspapers.
Percy Peter Tshidiso Qoboza was an influential black South African journalist, author, and outspoken critic of the apartheid government in South Africa during the early periods of world recognition of the problems evident in the racially divided land.
His eloquent editorials did much to challenge white South Africans who were shielded from the horrors of apartheid as experienced by millions of black South Africans at the hands of the minority government This year’s lecture will be delivered by a media executive and academic Phathiswa Magopeni under the theme under the theme “Freedom of Expression in the Digital Era”.
Magopeni is a seasoned media personality, an expert in the communications field, she was the head of news and current affairs at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in 2018.
The memorial lecture will take place at 4th Floor Function Hall, Kgorong Building, Unisa Main Campus in Pretoria.
Pretoria News