Johnnic Communications, publishers of the Sunday Times said in a statement on Saturday that the editor of the Sunday Times, Mathatha Tsedu, has been fired with immediate effect.
Tsedu, who is also the chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef), has been editor of the Sunday Times, South Africa’s best selling Sunday newspaper, for just over a year.
Making the announcement, Johnnic Communications Chief Executive Officer, Connie Molusi said: ”This follows irreconcilable differences between the company and Tsedu regarding his performance and the fulfillment of his written mandate.”
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday evening, Molusi denied that Tsedu had been fired because of a slump in profits.
”It’s basically that in the upper segment of the market we’ve lost some readers. So we clearly had a difference about the content mix. We dialogued over the issue, but we couldn’t agree. So we had to part ways,†said Molusi.
Public attention focused on Tsedu’s leadership after the sacking of the paper’s star political reporter Ranjeni Munusamy. Tsedu dismissed Munusamy after she leaked a story to the City Press that he had refused to publish, about allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy.
A senior Sunday Times journalist told the Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday that there was opposition to Tsedu from the paper’s staff which ”could be mostly racial”.
”I don’t know why he was fired, but there were complaints about him (Tsedu), from the old guard — people that were there before he got there. In terms of the opposition to him it was from a group of staff members that were mostly white. These were the people that were complaining about him. I don’t know if their motive was racial, but they were mostly white.”
”I think that if he wasn’t black he would have been given more of a chance. If he was a white guy he would have been given more time in the job … but it is hard to say because Johnnic is a black-owned company.”
Asked about whether the ”old guard” may have had it in for Tsedu, Molusi said he would ”like to find out more about that issue”.
”He had the right to approach management if there were any problems with his staff — he never said anything about his support levels.”
In the statement, Molusi said: ”For several months management has been concerned that Mr Tsedu has not been editing the paper in a manner consistent with his contract of employment and the written mission statement of the Sunday Times.”
Said the senior Sunday Times journalist: ” I don’t think he was worse than the previous guy. I don’t think it became a worse paper under him. I can’t see any material difference in the paper [that he edited] to that under the previous editor.”
Tsedu, a journalist with more than 25 years’ experience, had been deputy-editor at The Star, before a stint at the South African Broadcasting Corporation as acting head of news. Tsedu replaced Mike Robertson in late 2002. Robertson is now the publisher of the Sunday Times. Tsedu’s career included 20 years at the Sowetan where he rose to the position of political editor. During his tenure at the Sowetan he was banned for six years.
Molusi referred to Tsedu as ”one of South Africa’s most respected and accomplished journalists” when he was first appointed to the editor position.
The paper’s mission statement describes the Sunday Times as: ”An independent quality newspaper that sustains our democracy, is trusted by its readers and advertisers, is targeted at those people in living standards measures (LSM) categories 6-10 in South Africa and Southern Africa and is profitable.”
Johnnic has named Sunday Times managing editor Ray Hartley as acting editor, until a successor to Tsedu found. – Sapa