The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has expressed outrage at alleged political and police action regarding Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker, likening it to apartheid-era conduct.
Sanef noted with concern the reported intention of police to arrest and charge Makhanya and Maker with contravening the National Health Act, the forum said in a statement on Monday.
The alleged offence was that they were in illegal possession of copies of Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records.
”This latest development will prevent the Sunday Times and the aggrieved parties [from presenting] their full cases before an independent arbiter, whose decision we expect them to embrace,” Sanef said.
Sanef was also disturbed by reports that police had been instructed to dig up ”dirt” on Makhanya and the journalists who wrote the story.
”We are also perturbed that the journalists’ cellphone records have been investigated.
”If these allegations are true, and are coupled with the threats of Minister in the Presidency Dr Essop Pahad to withhold government advertising from the Sunday Times, [it] would reveal outrageous conduct by political and police authorities.”
They would be targeting a newspaper for punitive action for carrying out its duty to inform the public on matters of public interest, a role that a High Court judge had upheld.
Judge Mahomed Jajbhay recently found that there was ”a pressing need” for the public to be informed about the minister’s conduct and ruled that the paper was free to comment on them.
Sanef noted the irony that Makhanya’s arrest was expected to take place in the week when journalists throughout South Africa were commemorating Black Wednesday — the day 30 years ago when the repressive National Party government imprisoned or banned journalists and closed some newspapers and publications.
”Black Wednesday signalled the launching by that government of total war on the media; Sanef hopes that the action against Makhanya and the Sunday Times will not convey the same message,” the forum said.
Government connections
Earlier on Monday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) called on Parliament’s intelligence committee to investigate allegations that state operatives tapped Makhanya and Maker’s cellphones.
”The … committee needs to take immediate action to confirm this alleged misuse of state intelligence resources, which is not only completely unnecessary, but also unrelated to the facts of the Manto Tshabalala-Msimang/Sunday Times case,” DA spokesperson and committee member Paul Swart said.
”To use state resources on behalf of a private individual, as Tshabalala-Msimang has done in this case, because of her government connections, is a blatant encroachment of the state into the private sphere in order to protect connected individuals,” he said.
The Sunday Times reported at the weekend it had been warned by several sources, including intelligence and senior government officials, that Makhanya and Maker’s cellphones were being tapped.
The newspaper on Monday also refuted allegations it bought Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records from certain individuals.
”Sunday Times wishes to state that it did not pay one cent for access to the records and regards the practice of paying for information and stories as unethical, the newspaper’s lawyer Eric van den Berg said in a statement.
However, he declined to reveal how the newspaper obtained the records, saying the matter was the subject of a police investigation. – Sapa