From an early age Lise Beyers was always surrounded by journalists. Now editor of the Paarl Post, she reflects on the journey that has brought her to this point.
Lise Beyers grew up in a family of journalists. Her father insisted that she read the paper, even going as far as to test her on her current affairs knowledge around the dinner table. “I had to sit and watch the 8pm news, which is the last thing that especially a teenager wants to do,” says Beyers.
Lise Beyers sitting behind her desk at Paarl Post. She took up the post of editor in 2005 and has occupied it ever since, according to Beyers. Photo: Joseph Bracken
For Beyers growing up in South Africa in the 1970s was a turbulent time for both national and international affairs. After seeing the events unravelling in Palestine, she asked her father what a molotov cocktail was. With her curiosity getting the best of her, she made her own molotov cocktail and threw it at a tree in the park. “It hit the tree and exploded, I got such a fright!” she says whilst laughing.
At an early age, Beyers fell in love with photography. She decided to study photography and quickly realised she didn’t want to just photograph models and people striking poses. “I wanted to be in the action line,” she says. This is what drew her to work as a press photographer.
An explosive turning point
Beyers started her career as a press photographer for Beeld newspaper. She enjoyed working as a photographer, but she had a curiosity that also drew her to the writing side of journalism.
As a photographer, she would be in the background taking photos, but she would listen to the conversations the journalists would have with their sources. “If I was doing that interview, I would have asked this question. And I saw when [inteviewees] hadn’t answered a question,” she says.
Beyers would not have to wait long to begin her writing journey. When leaving Ellis Park Stadium from a Curry Cup match that she was photographing, she heard a large explosion. After the explosion, the area went completely silent. Debris started raining down, “fortunately, there was a bus stop probably about ten yards from me. So I just ran and sought shelter,” says Beyers.
The explosion had come from the other side of the stadium, so she followed the smoke to investigate what had happened. It was a car bomb, “There were two men who were getting into [the car], and they were blown into smithereens,” says Beyers.
She then went about her job taking photos. When she arrived back at the office they asked her if she could write a story on the bombing since she “had first-hand eyewitness material,” she says.
After writing the story, it still took about six or seven years before Beyers shifted her focus from press photography to writing.
After writing her first story for Beeld Lise Beyers would continue as a professional press photographer for several more years, according to Beyers. Photo: Joseph Bracken
Ransacked offices and ruined photos
After her time at Beeld, Beyers worked for the Afrikaans anti-apartheid newspaper Vrye Weekblad as a press photographer. It was here that she got to work closely with journalist Jacques Pauw. She learnt a lot about being a journalist working with him, “especially…the way he dealt with stories,” she says.
Beyers recalls how there were times when she would come to work and the offices would have been ransacked by officials. “I went to my dark room and somebody had gone in there and they’d just taken all the photographic paper out and strewn it all over the place looking for possible documentation inside,” she says. The photos were all ruined, she adds.
Lise Beyers (left), and Paarl Post journalist Heleen Rossouw (right) in the Paarl Post newsroom. Photo: Joseph Bracken
It was also during this time at Vrye Weekblad that Beyers fondly remembers being flown out to Cape Town to cover the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990. She arrived at 11am but had to wait until 3pm in the blaring February Paarl sun for Mandela to emerge. She then had to head to the airport, put her film on a plane, and drive straight to Grand Parade for Mandela’s first public appearance.
“I do sincerely hope that she publishes…a memoir of sorts highlighting her adventures over the years, for example capturing late President Nelson Mandela’s release from the then Victor Verster Prison…in Paarl,” says Maryke Swart, editor of Weslander, who met Beyers as a journalist at Paarl Post in 2013.
Taking a leap
After getting married and having children, Beyers stepped away from journalism for a short while. Then, after living in Kwa-Zulu Natal for some time, Beyers moved to Paarl with her Family as this is where she always wanted her children to be educated. It was at this time that she applied for a job at Paarl Post.
In 2005 Beyers began working at the newspaper. “I was thrown into the deep end as the head journalist,” she says.
Beyers immediately fell into her new role. “I just fell into the thing of being in Paarl and community journalism. I always say as a community journalist you can sum it up by saying you’re the poor man’s advocate,” she says.
“What’s great is when you have a good community story. Not a heavy news story, but a good community story. And then other mainstream media picks up on that and they start running with it. And you think, gee, now you’ve given your town a real voice,” she says.
“[Lise] strives to bring the stories of the community to the community. She is very passionate about journalism and always finds a way, via her many contacts, to tell the story,” says Liezl Davids news editor at Paarl Post, Davids has worked with Beyers for several years now.
“And then other mainstream media picks up on that and they start running with it. And you think, gee, now you’ve given your town a real voice”
Lise Beyers holding her newspaper publication Paarl Post. Recently Beyers also became the editor of Worcester Standard, another newspaper in the Boland area, she says. Photo: Joseph Bracken
Embracing creativity
When she’s not behind the desk or out chasing a story, Beyers likes to take on creative endeavours. Previously, she wrote a cooking column for Die Burger. “Shortly after I started working at Paarl Post, Die Burger got hold of me because I hunt and I work my meat…things like that,” she says.
“Lise is extremely passionate about food and loves experimenting with dishes. I remember one year where she braai’d every single day of the year, all 365 days, and I couldn’t wait to hear what was on the menu every night,” says Swart.
When she started, it was every second week, and then once a month. She wrote for them for years, says Beyers on the food column she did for Die Burger. She hopes to soon get back into writing food columns again. Photo: Joseph Bracken
Beyers believes that in their free time, journalists should embark on creative writing, or even write a column. “I’ve got two young journalists who are young mothers, and they’ve sometimes written about their experience of motherhood, it just gets you out of the rut of your normal day job,” says Beyers.
‘Join the action’
For Beyers journalism is about chasing the action and telling the whole story. “I don’t perhaps have much money or anything like that, but the stories and the memories, things like that, that’s what journalism is,” she says.
“It’s stories. It’s telling other people’s stories, and experiences. I know a lot of journalism now is done behind the desk because there are so many tools one can use, but where possible, one should go out and join the action,” says Beyers.