Martie Meiring
Martie Meiring (1934-2024) was an influential journalist, critic and cultural commentator.
Also known as Martie Retief, Martie Retief Meiring, or Martie Retief-Meiring
BEING WRITTEN
Contents
Biography
Born Martie Retief on 26 December 1934 in Johannesburg, she completed her school career in 1951 at Port Natal High School in Durban. In 1954 she obtained a BA at Stellenbosch University.
She started working as a journalist at the Eastern Cape newspaper Die Oosterlig in Port Elizabeth in 1955. After her two Oosterlig years from 1957 to 1959, Retief Meiring worked at Die Vaderland in Johannesburg. From 1960 to 1961 she was with NewsCheck, a South African news provider of the time. She left for London in 1962, where she did freelance work for the next two years. In 1964 she was appointed to the London office of National Newspapers and National Magazines, the two subsidiaries of National Press at the time. She returned to Die Beeld (the Sunday newspaper) in Johannesburg in 1967, where she went to Huisgenoot after six months. In 1975 she started working at the newly founded daily Beeld. From 1978 to 1981 she was editor of Bonanza, the then National Magazines' first magazine aimed at a black female market (Retief Meiring 2013). Here she literally pioneered the content and the collaborators who were willing to work for a Naspers publication (even if it meant for the publisher to capitalize on the growing black market [Spies 1992:428–9] ). As Spies put it: "Naspers increasingly took notice of new markets that were waiting to be exploited." (The theoretical view of the political economy of the media, as in the case of the "women's market" which was important to the early Die Burger, is again in question.) The black population's purchasing power, which despite being "modest on average" individual income, which was large in total, was part of the motivation for establishing the page, which was available free of charge (Spies 1992:429). Thanks to Retief Meiring's network of contacts, she was able to recruit several influential collaborators. Among them was Leah Tutu, wife of Desmond Tutu, who contributed as a columnist (Retief Meiring 2013). A well-known journalist and later editor of The Sowetan, Aggrey Klaaste, as well as the physician, businessman and activist, Nthato Motlana, were collaborators of the paper thanks to Retief Meiring.
After Bonanza was closed, Retief Meiring was a freelancer for the Sunday Times, where she wrote, among other things, a political column (CV 2017). She has written for overseas publications and for National Magazines. At the beginning of the 1990s, she was an editorial member of Vrye Weekblad when it appeared as a so-called "alternative" Afrikaans newspaper, and where she could live out her "strong political convictions" ("Martie Retief Meiring" s.j.); she was co-editor of this magazine (Vrye Weekblad 1994:40). Her journalistic work did not lag behind. In between, she produced articles on art and music, and was involved in the founding of the magazine De Kat (CV 2017). In between, she wrote columns for, among others, Die Burger's "Van alle kante", the oldest column in Afrikaans media ("Commendatio vir die..." 2017), while she was intensely involved in the foundation of several festivals (CV 2017 ). At the Aardklop National Arts Festival she was a board member for a long time, and she was involved in the Suidoosterfees, as well as one-off festivals, such as the e'Bosch Heritage Festival, the Harvest Festival on Saldanha in 2000, and the Slave Festival on Stellenbosch in 2008 (CV 2017). As an arts and culture activist, she was a member of SOST, the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust, and a member of the advisory committee of SU's Word Festival. Retief Meiring was the skim writer of two autobiographies, those of Janie du Plessis (2010) and Elita de Klerk (2011). Upon their retirement, Retief Meiring and her husband, the cultural leader architect Hannes Meiring (deceased in 2010), settled in Stellenbosch, where she was involved in numerous projects as a community leader in this town. Among other things, she taught column writing in the honors course at SU's Department of Journalism for a number of years.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Sources
Lizette Rabe 2024. "Voorlopervroue in die Afrikaanse joernalistiek: Een eeu, drie baanbrekers, drie generasies", LitNet (Seminare en essays), 2024-06-26 [1]
https://maroelamedia.co.za/nuus/sa-nuus/jou-spore-le-mooi-hier-huldeblyke-vir-martie-retief-meiring/
https://www.netwerk24.com/netwerk24/nuus/aktueel/martie-retief-meiring-sterf-20241006
Go to the ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to ESAT Personalities M
Return to South African Theatre Personalities
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
