Did Rasool oil hospital deal? This was the headline of a story we published on January 26, to which Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool took great umbrage. In his right to reply, granted by our ombud Franz Krüger, Rasool said the story played into racist stereotypes of Africans.
It was a ho-hum response that did not deal with the essence of the story. And it is ever so passé given that we have just hosted an African Union summit looking at how the continent should fight corruption to deepen democracy.
The tender to sell the V&A Waterfront and a now-aborted tender to sell the site of Somerset Hospital have become mired in controversies about cronyism and patronage. Our story exposed an inappropriate meeting at the Cape Grace to which provincial civil servants were summoned. Attendees included representatives of Dubai World, part of the consortium that bought the V&A Waterfront and which clearly wanted to buy the hospital site.
Our sources were uncomfortable about this meeting because it seemed as if the sale was predetermined when the tender documents had not even been drawn up. They told us that Rasool had played no small part in getting the meeting together and in ordering that civil servants attend it. In this context, with a multi-sourced research base, we headlined the story: “Did Rasool oil hospital deal?”
Our ombud, who has a forensic and extremely fair mind, said we should give Rasool a right to reply. I did. But Rasool wanted more. He insisted on a written “finding” by Krüger, which he received. Ultimately, Krüger thought we had gone too far in suggesting that a deal had been facilitated (he also differed with the headline) but he agreed that the presence of officials at a pre-tender meeting was inappropriate.
Our ombud keeps us on our ethical toes; he can make recommendations that I am duty-bound to take seriously. We do not always agree, but we have forged a relationship of mutual respect in the service of journalism.
The ombud is not there to be a politician’s battering ram. Rasool has used Krüger’s balanced written opinion (which we will publish next week) in a disingenuous way. Speaking in the legislature last week, he used selective quotes to suggest that the ombud had found that we had published incorrect information. In addition, he used the legislature’s protections to cast aspersion on journalist Pearlie Joubert, claiming twice (falsely) that her source is the DA.
This kind of cheap politicking makes it incredibly hard to cover a fractured and faction-ridden province in fair, credible and nonpartisan ways. We stand by our story. Did Rasool oil (the) hospital deal? I think he tried to. And failed. That outcome is in some measure the result of good journalism.
Ferial Haffajee is the editor of the Mail & Guardian