The front page was hurriedly pulled off the early edition of this weekend’s Sunday Times to comply with a court order barring its lead story, resulting in the newspaper being distributed without it.
Early editions were distributed with page three at the front of the paper, missing the wrap-around of pages one, two, 11 and 12.
”The Sunday Times was forced to recall thousands of copies of the newspaper last night after a dramatic, last-minute interim interdict prevented the publication of its lead story,” the newspaper explained in a substitute front page in later editions.
The interdict was issued by Judge Bruce Burman after a party alleged that the lead story contravened the Divorce Act.
The Sunday Times said the order prevents the newspaper from identifying the parties in the story and explaining why the interdict was granted.
The applicant must bring an application for a final order within 14 days.
”Thousands of newspapers had already been printed and were on vehicles headed for destinations around the country when the order came through,” said the newspaper in the rewritten issue. ”There was chaos at newspaper print sites across the country as workers offloaded newspapers from trucks.”
Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya apologised to readers and subscribers for the inconvenience.
The new lead story in the later editions is about the government launching an aggressive campaign to change the world’s perception that South Africa is losing the war against crime.
This campaign included an ”unprecedented” trip last week by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to Britain to reassure jittery foreign investors that South Africa is serious about tackling crime. — Sapa