Charlene Leonora Smith

Charlene Leonora Smith is a South-African journalist. She began her career at the Johannesberg Star, for which she covered the 1976 Soweto Uprising,.^[1] She later reported on politics for The Star, The Sunday Express, Sunday Tribune (where she was also deputy bureau chief), Business Day (where she was also deputy news editor), Sunday Times, Financial Mail (where she was also associate editor) and Finance Week (where she was also assistant editor). She freelanced for the "Mail and Guardian" for many years http://mg.co.za/person/charlene-smith as well as publications in the United Kingdom including the Guardian, the Observor, and in France, Le Monde and Alernative, as well as publications in north America. Awards for her journalism include those from CNN http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/africanawards/winners99.html, as well as the Courageous Journalism award from Rhodes University in South Africa and others.

Smith is a popular public speaker and has twice been invited to the Goteborg Book Fair as a guest of the Swedish government http://www.bok-bibliotek.se/en/about-goteborg-book-fair/nobel-prize-laureates-and-prominent-guests/, and has been invited to present papers or chair sessions at various World Aids Congresses and similar seminars on writing, womens issues - she has twice been a keynote speaker for International Council of Women annual general meetings, as an example, http://www.icw-cif.org/ICW-CIF%20General%20Assembly.pdf or aspects around conflict or violence.

In 1999, she was raped and stabbed in her home and a week later published her account of the event and her quest to obtain anti-viral drugs.^[2] Smith began campaigning for rape survivors, as she called them, rejecting the term victim, to receive post exposure prophylaxis after rape. She persistently wrote about South Africa's high rape figures - the worst in the world - for international publications earning the ire of AIDS-denialist, President Thabo Mbeki http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=84521&sn=Detail.

The Centers for Disease Control invited her to make an address about her views on post-exposure prophylaxis after sexual assault in August, 2000 - this followed her presentation of papers at the 2000 World AIDS Congress in Durban, South Africa http://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajhivm/article/viewFile/44727/28226, where she shared a platform, among others with Dr. David Holtgrave of the CDC. Immediately after the address she was approached by Dr. Ken Dominguez and Consuelo Beck-Segue of the CDC about assisting in the development of a PEP protocol for sexual assault. Smith aided in the development of this protocol which came into effect in 2004. She received numerous awards for her journalismhttp://pages.interlog.com/~saww/2001Charlene.html, and her voluntary work with those infected or affected by HIV and too, those who had experienced sexual assault http://charlenesmith.net/books_and_awards.asp.

In 2004, Smith published an article about the prevalence of rape in South Africa, earning a personal criticism from President Thabo Mbeki, a former ally but also an AIDS denialist - in 2008, Harvard University would estimate that his denialism would led to the unnecessary deaths of more than 360,000 HIV-infected South Africans http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html?pagewanted=all. Smith was one of those who consistently sounded the alarm about the consequences of his policies. Her 2004 article touched off a confrontation in Parliament in which "legislators accused Mr. Mbeki of dodging the issues of sexual violence and AIDS, and the president accused them of pretending that racism died with apartheid."^[3] Mbeki's criticism of Smith first began in December, 1999, as he resisted her ongoing writing, research and outspoken public position about high levels of HIV and sexual violence in South Africa.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3716004.stm

Smith has been a producer for ABC’s Nightline (US) under Ted Koppel including a week long broadcast from South Africa in 1985 and for CBS 60 Minutes with Ed Bradley. She has worked on a number of documentaries for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1985 to 2009, including two award winning documentaries on Nelson Mandela http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/mandela.html and http://www.cogentbenger.com/docs/mandela.php as well as one on South Africa’s democratic transition. From 1986 to 1992, she wrote opinion and analysis articles for the Los Angeles Times, and has also written for the Washington Post, The Observer, Guardian, Le Monde http://mondediplo.com/_Charlene-Smith_ and other publications. She is a highly-rated blogger on the Mail & Guardian's Thoughtleader.^[4] which she occasionally contributes to.

She has worked for many years as a communications and marketing consultant for organizations including the World Economic Forum, the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup in South Africa, and other international companies and organizations. Smith has authored 14 non-fiction books including Mandela and Robben Islandhttp://www.randomstruik.co.za/about-the-author.php?authorID=3375&imprintID=1, edited and ghost-written others http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1198833.Charlene_Smith. A dual South African, US citizen, Smith is highly respected in the country of her birth and is listed in South Africa's Who's Who http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/charlene-smith-3428

She has worked as Director of Communications and Marketing for Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/12/prweb4901514.htm and presently lives and works in Washington, D.C. as a writer, editor and consultant. She covers the White House for various news outlets in the U.S.A. and abroad including Rhody News http://www.rhodynews.com/category/politics/. She has written extensively on health issues including overmedication and prescription drug addiction http://www.opednews.com/articles/Prescription-drugs-kill-co-by-Charlene-Smith-110902-348.html

Books

• Smith, Charlene (1997). Robben Island. Cape Town: Struik. ISBN 1868720624. 
• Smith, Charlene (1999). Mandela. Cape Town: Struik Publishers. ISBN 1868722066. 
• Magubane, Peter (2001). Soweto. Cape Town: Struik Publishers. ISBN 1868725847.  (Text by Charlene Smith)
• Smith, Charlene (2001). Proud of Me: Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence and HIV. Penguin. ISBN 9780141003986.  (Nominated for the Alan Paton Award, and voted one of the top 10 books of the year by The Star newspaper and Sunday Times. Launched in Sweden as Utan Skuld by Leopard Press in September, 2003).^[5]
• Smith, Charlene (2006). On the Sidelines Clapping: Gender in Southern Africa. Johannesburg: Heinrich Boll Foundation. 
• Smith, Charlene (2006). South Africa’s top Women. Business in Africa. 
• Smith, Charlene ed. (2007). The Little Book of Big Business Secrets. AstroTech. 
• Smith, Charlene (2009). Committed to Me. Cape Town: Oshun Books. ISBN 9781770200890. 
• Voyagers into Tomorrow. Tradebridge. 2009. 
• Smith, Charlene (2011). Mandela and America. New Africa Books & Nelson Mandela Foundation.  (forthcoming)

Chapters in books

• 1992: Patterns of Violence, edited A Minnaar, HSRC, chapter conflict in Natal.
• 1995: Robben Island, edited Jurgen Schadeberg, chapter on escapes.
• 2004: How South Africans Looked the Beast in the Eye: HIV in SA edited by head of SA HIV Clinicians Society, Dr Des Martin, Jonathan Ball
• 2004: The Closest of Strangers: South African Women’s Life Writing edited by Judith Lutge Coullie, Wits University Press
• 2005: Media in South Africa by William Mervin Gumede, Kwa Zulu Natal University Press (chapter on broadcasting)
• 2006: Articlulations: A Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture Collection, Africa World Press and University of KwaZulu Natal Press. 2006: 1956: The Woman’s March edited and published by Mothobi Mutloatse.
• 2009: AIDS published by Leopard Forlag, Sweden.

References

1. ^ http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/smith-c.htm
2. ^ "South African journalist Charlene Smith", NPR.org, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1124730
3. ^ "After Apartheid: Heated Words About Rape and Race", New York Times, November 24, 2004 Sharon LaFraniere, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/international/africa/24letter.html
4. ^ http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/charlenesmith/2008/01/06/writers-and-the-fallacy-of-fame/
5. ^ http://lifestyle.iafrica.com/herlife/features/119131.html2002: Patricia de Lille by Charlene Smith (Spearhead)

External links

• Charlene Smith - writers-and-the-fallacy-of-fame, Mail and Guardian online - Jan 2008
• Speakout.org - survivors - Charlenes story
• http://pages.interlog.com/~saww/2001Charlene.html
• National Public Radio

Persondata
Name	Smith, Charlene Leonora
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death