MONDAY 10.00AM:
NOW that the euphoria around President Nelson Mandela’s secret wedding to Graa Machel has died down, questions are being asked as to the wisdom of the official denials that preceded the Saturday ceremony at Mandela’s Houghton, Johannesburg home.
The Mail & Guardian two weeks ago reported that the president was to marry on his birthday, while The Star last week published reports saying the wedding would indeed go ahead. However, the reports were consistently denied as “rumours”, most notably by Mandela’s office itself, and his spokeman Parks Mankahlana.
While the level of secrecy was undoubtedly to ensure the privacy of the ceremony, many local and international journalists are questioning the wisdom of the denials. Journalists note that Mankahlana has never lied to them before; now, they ask, how will they believe him when he in future denies that South Africa is selling arms to Libya or the like.
Media commentators say it is one thing not to comment on a “rumour”, but another entirely to write of facts as falsehoods.