Badela, Nomoyi families express delight at national orders

In 1985, apartheid operatives set fire to a two-bedroom house in Limba Street, New Brighton.

Inside was journalist Mono Badela his wife, Vivian, and their two sons.

Though the family managed to escape unharmed, the attack was the latest in a series of run-ins with the apartheid machinery which had systematically targeted Badela for his front-line journalism that exposed its atrocities.

On Friday, the late journalist was one of six Nelson Mandela Bay women and men honoured by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he bestowed national orders — the country’s highest awards — on 32 citizens and eminent foreign nationals.

Badela was posthumously honoured with the Order of Ikhamanga in gold for his contribution to the fight against apartheid through his reporting, which highlighted its brutal violence during the 1970s and 1980s in the Eastern Cape.

Also recognised were Springboks captain Siya Kolisi, PAC member Moki Cekisani, the late renowned playwright Ben Nomoyi, the late Bay political activist Molly Blackburn and Denver Kock, who died in March 2021 while helping passengers out of an overturned taxi which caught alight.

Badela’s daughter, Brenda Badela, who received the award with her brother, Phiko Badela,  said they had been more excited than surprised that their father had received the order.

“It’s been a long time and he deserved it,” Brenda said.

“He was not scared to write the truth in a time when many journalists were,” she said.

Before his house was burnt, forcing him to relocate  back to Johannesburg in 1980, Badela was detained and put under house arrest for three years.

At the time he was employed by the Sunday Post.

After his arrest, he joined the Sowetan in Johannesburg before being sent back to Port Elizabeth to open the City Press bureau for the Eastern Cape.

In 1986, he helped establish the Association of Democratic Journalists and became its first president.

Badela was also a rugby man, earning provincial colours when he played centre for the Border region.

He was also the founding president of the Kwazakhele Rugby Union.

“His recognition is not just for us as a family but his colleagues, Gqeberha and all the people of the Eastern Cape,” Brenda said.

Badela died in 2002.

Nontuthuzelo Nomoyi, who received the order of Ikhamanga in Silver on behalf of her late husband, Ben Nomoyi, described him as a stickler for work who burnt the midnight oil.

“He would wait until we go to bed at 10pm and say he wants peace and quiet.

“I’d wake up in the morning to see his bloodshot eyes and think this is such hard work,” she said.

A prolific playwright, Nomoyi wrote and produced many notable works and was the first black filmmaker in the country whose work was featured on SABC1 — then TV1.

His work includes Inkedama, Deliwe, Ukhozi, Nolitye nezakhe UDeliwe, Born to lose, Both sides of the coin and many others.

“He even mastered the art of editing without being trained because he was very dedicated,” Nontuthuzelo said.

Nomoyi’s talent came to the fore after he was kicked out of the University of Fort Hare for political activism.

He grew up in New Brighton after his family moved from Korsten during forced removals.

“We are very excited because we believe this was long overdue.

“Almost all his work friends and proteges have been acknowledged so I have always thought how can the teacher not get his flowers?

“But that has never made us panic because everything is in God’s time,” she said.

Nomoyi died in 2016.

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