/ 31 January 2013

Corrections and clarifications: 2013

The 2006 forensic report prepared for Zuma's trial that never saw the light of day ... now made available in the public interest.
The outcome of the ANC’s long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

September 30

In Loansome robots replace cash cowboys:

In a previous version of the article we stated that 

“PwC’s banking analysis for the reporting period ended June 2013 found that the banks’ impairment expenses were 6.7% for the first half of the year.”

This is wrong, and has been changed to:

“PwC’s banking analysis for the reporting period ended June 2013 found that the combined credit loss ratio of the major banks was at 1.2% for the first half of the year.”

We apologise for the error.

September 4

In ICT asks ConCourt to ‘correct’ SCA ruling on Sishen mine, it was stated that Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane Zuma, is a shareholder in ICT through an investment vehicle. This is incorrect. Duduzane Zuma does not to our knowledge hold shares in ICT. We apologise for the error.

It was also stated that Jagdish Parekh holds shares in ICT. While Parekh did hold shares in ICT through his company, Pragat Investments, this is no longer the case and we apologise for the error. 

August 20

In Dina Pule: If I made a mistake, I’m sorry, the Mail & Guardian erroneously quoted former minister of communications as saying she had made a mistake. She had, in fact, said “if she had made a mistake”. We regret the error.

April 26

Clarification

In a graphic illustrating a feature dealing with attitudes towards homosexuality in the various religions in last week’s Mail & Guardian (“This church welcomes homosexuals“, April 19), I was quoted giving the Orthodox Jewish perspective and identified in my capacity as associate director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies. 

I was in error in commenting on the issue. The Board of Deputies does not take any particular position on questions of religious doctrine, and I apologise for any misunderstanding my comments may have caused in this regard. – David Saks 

April 25

In an article, “Vavi fight gets vicious: Cosatu leadership battle heats up“, detailing fresh developments in the campaign to oust Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi from his post, wereported on complaints by union leaders that Corruption Watch, an organization Vavi helped to found, was investigating Cosatu affiliate unions.

That report requires clarification and correction.

It is true that union leaders opposed to Vavi are complaining both privately and in public about what they believe are Corruption Watch investigations into them.

And it is true that a series of anonymous allegations against Satawu, Ceppawu, Popcru leaders, among others, were submitted to the organization.

However, we misinterpreted Corruption Watch’s own explanation of the situation, which we quoted in the story.

Corruption Watch has made it clear that while it did receive these complaints, it decided for various reasons not to pursue them.

We regret the error.

April 12

On December 14 2012 we published an article titled “Campaign to kick Mkhize upstairs”. The article contained a quote from an unnamed person who insinuated that Mkhize’s family, especially his daughters, were benefitting from his position. One of his daughters has pointed out that she is not in business and was not asked to comment on the story. We contacted Dr Mkhize for comment, but he was not asked about this specific allegation. The M&G regrets any inconvenience caused.

In an article on March 22 2012, entitled “Diary of ‘incest’ rips SA family apart”, the M&G incorrectly stated that the California Court of Appeal “barred” Ivor and Joan Jacobson from visiting their grandchildren in the US. In fact, the court reversed an earlier ruling by the Superior Court, which had granted the Jacobsons visitation rights. No court has issued any order banning them from visiting. In addition, in a paragraph describing psychosexual evaluations that Ivor underwent, it was incorrectly implied that this included a “pallometry” test. The M&G also incorrectly inserted the phrase “the ruling” in parenthesis in quoting Joan Jacobson saying: “[The ruling] brought back all the terror …” In fact, Joan provided this quote in response to requests for comment from the M&G, and so the phrase should properly have read: “[Your request for comment] brought back all the terror …” We regret the errors.

February 5
The headline to the article “Census 2011 irregularities: Top officials pressured” was changed on February 5 from “Census 2011 irregularities: Top officials ‘bullied'”. The Mail & Guardian believes that “pressured” is a better reflection of the facts.

January 31
A previous version of the story “Parastatals ‘bullied’ into supporting the ‘New Age’ “, incorrectly named Denel as one of the implicated parastatals. We regret the error.

March 26
A previous version of the story “Tiger re-employs CFO who quit during price-fixing row” incorrectly attributed the fourth paragraph to Alex Mathole. This has been rectified.