M&G vindicated by ombud ruling

ADRIAAN BASSON AND YOLANDI GROENEWALD JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 19 2008 06:00

Press ombudsman Joe Thloloe has confirmed that the Mail & Guardian was correct in revealing that a convicted embezzler is the international business associate of a proposed marine farming project in the Coega industrial development zone.

Thloloe and panellists Ethel Manyaka and Peter Mann ruled last week on a complaint laid by Bosasa Operations, SeaArk Africa and Bosasa chief executive Gavin Watson against the M&G that a February 22 report about the SeaArk project was inaccurate.

The M&G reported under the headline “Big stink over R9bn prawn farm” that Bosasa, a company that holds huge government contracts, has a convicted embezzler, David Wills, as its international business partner on the SeaArk Africa pilot prawn farm.

None of Bosasa’s complaints about the report’s accuracy was upheld.

The panel found, however, that the M&G was in breach of the press code in not asking Bosasa for comment on an allegation that the company exerted “outrageous” political pressure on the Eastern Cape provincial government to approve the plant.

The ruling (PDF)

Read the press ombudsman's full ruling

The ombudsman found:

Bosasa, SeaArk Africa and Watson had three chances to put forward their story on Wills’s history but failed to do so. “As an afterthought they now turn to the ombudsman and say the newspaper’s story was defamatory and inaccurate.”
The M&G quickly corrected its error that Wills was not sentenced to imprisonment but to community service.
To any reader Wills is SeaArk Africa’s “international business associate”.
Bosasa has had a “chequered history” within the normal meaning of the phrase.
It is likely that Bosasa is under investigation by the special investigating unit for tender fraud.

In terms of the ombudsman’s complaints procedures either party may apply for leave to appeal the ruling within seven days of receiving it.

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M&G vindicated by ombud ruling

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