Eric Miyeni’s controversial column in the Sowetan attacking City Press editor Ferial Haffajee as a “black snake in the grass” sparked a domino effect that led to the appointment of new editors at two daily newspapers.
The column, a defence of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema under the headline “Haffajee does it for white masters”, precipitated the fall of the Sowetan‘s acting editor, Len Maseko, who stepped down on Wednesday this week.
Mpumelelo Mkhabela, previously editor of the Daily Dispatch, has been appointed the new Sowetan editor, and Brendan Boyle, Avusa’s veteran parliamentary correspondent, takes over from Mkhabela at the Daily Dispatch with immediate effect. Maseko will stay on with the group, although it was unclear in which capacity.
Avusa fired Miyeni after the column appeared on Monday, making him the third columnist to be sacked by the group in recent times. David Bullard at the Sunday Times and Kuli Roberts at the Sunday World also lost their jobs after writing columns that were deemed racist and offensive.
Critics had called for Avusa editors to take responsibility for the lack of judgment in publishing the column and Mondli Makhanya, Avusa Media’s editor-in-chief, was putting out fires all week.
Avusa said the Sowetan shuffle was made “in a bid to bolster the existing team and continue to deliver the quality content for which the paper has been known for the past 60 years”. An investigation was also under way to determine how the column slipped through editorial quality control at the newspaper.
In his resignation letter Maseko said that he accepted the consequences of the lapse in the paper’s judgment.
Mkhabela started his career as a reporter at City Press before being appointed Daily Dispatch editor in January. Makhanya described him as “one of the country’s most respected journalists and political commentators”. He was also a deputy editor at the Sunday Independent before moving to Avusa.
“Mkhabela believes in strong debate and editorial integrity while also embracing the synergy between print and digital media,” Makhanya said in a statement.
Boyle, a former Reuters South African bureau chief, has been the parliamentary bureau chief of Avusa Media. He also runs the politics section of the TimesLIVE website and has a weekly column in Avusa daily The Times. “Brendan has seen it all,” Makhanya said.
Boyle, who was born in East London, said he was looking forward to editing the Daily Dispatch and building on its reputation for Âinvestigative journalism in areas that affected its community, such as the renowned Frere Hospital exposé in 2007.
“There are fine reporters at the Dispatch. The paper certainly isn’t broken and I look forward to protecting its reputation,” he said.
He added, tongue in cheek: “What I’ll be sure to do is read every column that goes into print.”