Tony Heard

Anthony Hazlitt Heard (20 November 1937 – 27 March 2024) was a South African journalist, author and government advisor. He is best known for his journalism covering apartheid, most notably interviewing African National Congress (ANC) leader Oliver Tambo in 1985 at a time when it was banned by the South African government. After the country's transition to a new democratic South Africa, Heard became an adviser in the presidency, serving until 2010.

Early life and education He was born on 20 November 1937 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to George and Vida Heard (née Stodden), both journalists. He married Valerie Joy Heard (née Hermanson), a graduate from the University of Cape Town's College of Music. They had two daughters. Heard later married Mary Ann Barker with whom he had two children.

Career

Following his return to South Africa in 1955, Heard was employed as a journalist at the Cape Times in Cape Town.

His interview with Tambo was published in the Cape Times under the heading "A Conversation with Oliver Tambo of the ANC,” was an important event in South African history. It allowed the ANC to articulate its vision of a non-racial South Africa to the public, thereby alleviate fears held by White South Africans for a post-apartheid South Africa, and ultimately helped created the political conditions for the negotiated settlement that ended apartheid and established a non-racial democratic government.

Following the interview Heard was arrested and released on bail for contravening the Internal Security Act with the case against him eventually being dropped by the government. He won the Golden Pen Award of Freedom from the World Association of Newspapers for the interview.

Following his departure from the Cape Times, Heard temporarily moved to the United States where he became a Nieman Fellow and was a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at University of Arkansas. After the transition to democracy, he served in the administration of Nelson Mandela as a senior official, first advising the Minister for Water Affairs, Kader Asmal and then later working in the presidency of the Thabo Mbeki administration. His journalist daughter, Janet, followed in his footsteps as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2009/2010.

Death

Heard died in Cape Town following a brief illness on 27 March 2024. 2022: Allan Kirkland Soga Lifetime Achievement Award at the Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards, organised by the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF)

List of books

External references

O. R. Tambo Interviewed by Anthony Heard, October 1985 (Cape Times), transcript available on South African History Online