Sunday World apologises to ZCC for ‘unfair headline’
The church and its 16 million members had threatened to boycott all Tiso Blackstar publications.
ATTRIDGEVILLE, SOUTH AFRICA – APRIL 28: Members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) gather for a mass prayer meeting at Lucas Moripe Stadium in Attridgeville, South Africa. The members marked the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Land Act. (Photo by Gallo Images / The Times / Moeletsi Mabe)
Tabloid Sunday World issued an apology to the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) in its paper on Sunday in the wake of a threat from 16 million church members and sympathisers to boycott the Sunday World, Sowetan, Sunday Times and other newspapers owned by the Tiso Blackstar Group.
The paper admitted it had “created a wrong and misleading impression that a court of law had in fact made a pronouncement” to the effect that ZCC church leader Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane was facing arrest.
They corrected this, saying the matter had in fact been a civil dispute between the ZCC and five of its branches in Botswana. The branches had only “wished” and submitted to court that Lekganyane should be arrested for his failure to comply with a previous order of the court.
As this submission had not been accepted and confirmed by the court, the headline had been “unfair, without basis and inaccurate”.
Last week Sunday World published a front-page story about Lekganyane being taken to court by the ZCC in Botswana and for being charged with contempt of court. The Botswana branch sought to merge with the SA branch but this was rejected by Lekganyane and wound up in court.
In a statement, the ZCC responded by saying the media group had made it its mission to defame, ridicule and make a mockery of the church and its leader
The church said it could not spend money on or even associate itself with the Tiso Blackstar Group because their stories on their publications about the ZCC were apparently published for fun and commercial reasons. They were aimed at undermining the integrity and reputation of the church and its leader.
“We are not against freedom of press and we’re 100% supportive to any press which of course must follow the ethics and conduct of this. But as we say, as a church there is no other way we can solve this problem other than doing this,” ZCC spokesperson Reverend Emanuel Motolla said.
Motolla said Tiso Blackstar’s publications were deliberately dragging the ZCC through the mud to increase “dwindling circulation”.
“I’m saying this categorically that if they think they can challenge this church and bring it to its knees, they’re daydreaming because we believe in God and pray that we should be where we are. Instead of going down, we’re going up,” he said.
