The South African Human Rights Commission is conducting an internal investigation into an incorrect media statement that said it would not pursue a complaint of racism against columnist David Bullard. ”The official position of the commission has never been that we are not taking up the matter,” said CEO Tseliso Thipanyane.
The South African Human Rights Commission will not pursue two complaints it received about the controversial column that led to writer David Bullard being fired from the Sunday Times, spokesperson Vincent Moaga said on Wednesday. This is because the newspaper has apologised, he said.
The group executive of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is ”disturbed” by inaccuracies in media reports indicating that the broadcaster’s board plans to axe its chief executive, Dali Mpofu. The Sunday Times reported that the SABC board planned to axe Mpofu for dereliction of duty.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Tuesday expressed its deep concern at media reports signalling a ”looming battle” between the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board and management. ”We are deeply concerned,” SACP spokesperson Malesela Maleka said in a statement.
South African broadcast journalist Mark Klusener, who was arrested for allegedly operating a pirate radio station, was released from house arrest in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Rafique Gangat, a spokesperson for radio station Ram FM where Klusener is the news director, said: ”The house arrest of the staff was lifted at 10.01am today [Tuesday]. But certain restrictions remain.”
Leonard Chuene will have the last laugh on Sunday over his number-one enemy, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), when he is re-elected as president of Athletics South Africa. No one is standing against him. In the run-up to the elections, Chuene has been under pressure to resign.
A "racist column" has cost well-known <i>Sunday Times</i> columnist David Bullard his job, media reports said on Friday. "He wrote a racist column on Sunday. I had a conversation with him on Tuesday, I told him that what he wrote was unacceptable," <i>Sunday Times</i> editor Mondli Makhanya was quoted as saying.
The saga of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has won the Mail & Guardian‘s investigations team the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Award for story of the year, it was announced on Wednesday evening at the seventh annual awards ceremony held at the Wanderers club in Johannesburg.
South African journalist Mark Klusener was ordered to pay 25 000 shekels (about R53 700) and placed under house arrest by a court in Jerusalem on Tuesday, said his wife, Peroshni Govender. Klusener and other staff members were arrested for operating a pirate radio station.
South African journalist Mark Klusener was expected to appear in court in Jerusalem on Tuesday following his arrest, his wife Peroshni Govender said. She had been told that he and other staff members were arrested for operating a pirate radio station. Klusener is news director of 93.6 Ram FM, based in Jerusalem.
Kgalema Motlanthe, deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC), on Sunday criticised the ”state of disorder” that characterised the ANC Youth League’s (ANCYL) national conference in Bloemfontein. Outgoing ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said that ”forces” had tried to disrupt the congress but that they had failed.
”There are times and places when being brave should not be a good sign. Take journalism, for instance. Unlike with, say the Nobel Prize, a country whose journalists are renowned for their courageous journalism should feel ashamed of itself,” writes Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
Partly prompted by Andrew Feinstein, there appears to be influential support for an amnesty-based approach to dealing with the unresolved questions of the arms deal. This idea should be nipped in the bud. It has a superficial attraction, but it is ill-conceived. This country has had enough amnesty; it is time for some justice, writes Richard Calland.
The South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) on Monday rejected an apology in a weekend newspaper by the University of the Free State and called for the resignation of Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The full-page advertisement in the Sunday Times came after a racist video that sparked a national outcry.
Football folk make the kind of throwaway remarks that would be alarming coming from anyone else. ”Some people think football is a matter of life and death,” Bill Shankly, the late Liverpool coach, once said. ”I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.”
Tim Modise’s days at the 2010 local organising committee (LOC) are numbered and the only questions are whether he will fall on his own sword or be axed, say informed sources close to the LOC and in the government. The sources told the Mail & Guardian the one-time star broadcaster is struggling with his role as chief officer of communications and marketing.
Back in the wild Sixties and Seventies, a Formula One hotshot would arrive bleary-eyed at his hotel, check out the nearest club and order a large drink or three. In 2008, his corporate-conscious counterpart is more likely to check into the gym and order an early call. ”I have busy testing days, busy marketing days and I have training days,” said Lewis Hamilton.
The office of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) acting head Mokotedi Mpshe was quarantined on Thursday when it was discovered that a threatening letter addressed to him was laced with a poisonous substance, the Sunday Times reported. NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali confirmed that at least one employee had a violent physical reaction to the letter.
”I am shocked to learn from ‘A democracy of untouchables’ (February 8) that Independent Communications Authority of South Africa councillor Robert Nkuna was involved in drafting the African National Congress’s proposal for a print-media tribunal,” writes the Democratic Alliance’s Dene Smuts.
The emergence of the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) indicates there are problems in the media, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) CEO Tseliso Thipanyane said on Tuesday. ”What is going wrong in media rooms to lead to the establishment of the FBJ?” he asked at a discussion on how the media cover race and racism
Shamim ”Chippy” Shaik has been stripped of his doctorate degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal without reason, his brother and lawyer Yunis Shaik said on Sunday. Last year, media reports said that ”more than two-thirds” of Shaik’s 2003 PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the then-University of Natal had been plagiarised
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/ 25 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is not conducting a forensic audit into empowerment deals and tenders that were received by its investment company, Chancellor House, the party said on Monday. ”The ANC wishes to place on record that it is neither conducting an investigation nor a forensic audit into the company or any of its transactions.”
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/ 18 February 2008
The Fifa local organising committee (LOC) on Monday rubbished claims of divisions within the local 2010 organising body on Monday. LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza said the focus should be on the 2010 project and not his relationship with committee CEO Danny Jordaan.
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/ 17 February 2008
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Jacob Zuma, president of the African National Congress (ANC), husband to two wives, is planning to take a third, a media report said on Sunday. Zuma (65) married 33-year-old Nompumelelo Ntuli, the mother of two of his children, in early January.
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/ 17 February 2008
Infighting and mistrust are tearing the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) apart, a media report said on Sunday. Key players in the LOC — tasked with organising Africa’s first Fifa Soccer World Cup — were barely talking to each other, while chief executive Danny Jordaan has been labelled a ”control freak”.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) did not act improperly as suggested by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana said on Thursday. The ANCYL lodged a complaint with his office stating that the Scorpions held an ”inappropriate” meeting.
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/ 13 February 2008
The Presidency said on Wednesday that it would have to consult President Thabo Mbeki before commenting on a report quoting former ambassador to France Barbara Masekela. In the report, Masekela is quoted as saying she had arranged a meeting between Mbeki and an arms company that is the co-accused in Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial.
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/ 13 February 2008
Wealthy Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who led and financed a big opposition campaign against President Mikhail Saakashvili, has died in London, one of his aides said on Wednesday. A report on Georgian public television said the businessman had died of a heart attack.
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/ 12 February 2008
In the second instalment of his interview with Kgalema Motlanthe, Ebrahim Harvey speaks to the ANC deputy president about healing division in the party, unity among the alliance partners and the Polokwane ‘revolution’.
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/ 10 February 2008
An intense battle over the future of the Scorpions is raging between the government and the African National Congress, the Sunday Times reported. The party’s parliamentary caucus was setting up a heavyweight committee to drive the dismantling of the unit, while President Thabo Mbeki was mounting a defiant fightback campaign.
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/ 10 February 2008
The United Kingdom is ”likely” to strip South Africa of its ”visa-free” status this year because of rampant corruption in the Department of Home Affairs, the Sunday Times reported. South Africans would have to pay £63 (nearly R1 000) and provide fingerprints, ”facial biometrics” and travel documents to obtain visas, the newspaper said.
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/ 4 February 2008
The African National Congress was not aware of any imminent visit to its Johannesburg headquarters by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, a spokesperson said on Monday. Rasool’s spokesperson Shado Twala also said she did know about the reported visit.