In his journalism work, Can Themba caused quite a storm. He followed in the footsteps of Henry Nxumalo, who was on his way to achieving legendary status for his investigative journalism. The byline ‘Mr Drum’ was initially conceived as a gimmick to attract the attention of readers. Used first by Nxumalo, ‘Mr Drum’ soon become a legendary character as Nxumalo embarked on dangerous assignments in his investigations.

One of the first major stories of investigative journalism that appeared under the ‘Mr Drum’ name was the Bethal farm saga, which exposed massive abuse of labourers. Nxumalo went to the farm under the guise of searching for employment, and worked on the farm for two weeks, thus uncovering a thrilling and scandalous story. However, during those two weeks, his life was at risk, as the working conditions were the definition of modern-day slavery, and he had no way of returning to Johannesburg. Back in the newsroom, the editorial team was getting anxious, and photographer Jürgen Schadeberg was sent to investigate and rescue Nxumalo if possible.

Schadeberg drove for over two hours to get to the small country town of Bethal in what was then the Eastern Transvaal. Once there, he set out to find the Sonneblom farm where Nxumalo was supposedly working as a farm labourer. He noticed Nxumalo among the labourers working on the potato fields under the guard of a man on horseback, carrying a whip. Giving an account of the rescue mission, Schadeberg reports: ‘I opened the door of the passenger seat and pressed the hooter, which gave a miserably squeaky sound.