How Dispatch brought the news of Madiba’s passing

IT’S the morbid story we can now talk about – how the Daily Dispatch prepared for the inevitable, the passing of Nelson Mandela.

Project M, as we called it, had been in place for many years. So when the news broke on Thursday night, December 5, reporters and production staff arrived at the Caxton Street offices and without hesitation set in motion the plan for coverage. Reporting staff started fanning out throughout the Eastern Cape to cover how local communities responded and later a team led by deputy editor Brett Horner left East London to augment the Mthatha bureau.

The first edition of the Dispatch, which goes to all rural parts of the paper’s circulation area, had already been printed. Distribution of that edition continued.

However, the first three pages of the second edition, which goes to urban areas of Buffalo City, were replaced with specially designed pages and up-to-date articles on the icon’s passing.

Then the staff turned to the commemorative supplement to be incorporated into the Saturday Dispatch – and discovered the tribute edition, written and rewritten over many years and containing 22 pages of material reflecting every aspect of Madiba’s life, with a front cover headlined “Peacemaker who united a nation”, had inexplicably disappeared from the Dispatch’s computer servers. A massive recovery operation started and editor Bongani Siqoko was full of praise for his team, whose efforts have continued since then.

“Unlike other South Africans,” he said, “we could not go to rallies, prayers, tribute lectures or lay flowers ... the only way we could honour him was to dedicate many hours to reporting his story for the benefit of our readers. And as his hometown newspaper we had to own the story.... None of us will ever be part of a story like this. Not in our lifetime. I hope we did not disappoint.” — DDR