Sunday Times eating humble pie

The Sunday Times’ narrative of the Cato Manor “death squad” and the “illegal Zimbabwean renditions” joined their cousin the Sars “rogue unit” in the journalism trash bin following the newspaper’s withdrawal of the stories penned by its “investigative unit” consisting of Stephan Hofstatter, Mzilikazi Wa Afrika and Rob Rose.

“As we said two years ago, our systems, structure and processes led to our failure and we have no excuse but to acknowledge that and apologise,” wrote its editor, Bongani Siqoko, yesterday.

Writing on Uncaptured SA, former Kwazulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Johan Booysen – at the centre of the death squad allegations – called the narratives “a series of probably the most damaging media publications to our democracy”, which “ultimately culminated in the decimation of Sars and the Hawks”.

“The current editor of Sunday Times, Bongani Siqoko, who inherited the chaos his predecessors Ray Hartley and Phylicia Oppelt left behind, will be lauded by future generation journalists for his brave and unprecedented steps to initiate a catharsis in the journalism fraternity of South Africa.”

But the fallout has been tremendous, not only in the mistrust generated towards news media generally, but to the litter of careers left in the wake of the “salacious propaganda stories” generated from 2011 to as recently as last week, when the Sunday Times crossed swords with forensic consultant Paul O’ Sullivan.

The victims of the reporting included former head of the Hawks Anwa Dramat, Gauteng Hawks boss Shadrack Sibiya, Booysen and the Cato Manor Serious and Violent Crimes Unit and the next layer of management, Mpumalanga Hawks boss Simon Mapeyane, Ipid boss Robert McBride, Ipid investigator Matthews Sesoko and others, Sars former deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, chief officers Gene Ravele and Barry Hore, group executive Pete Richer, spokesperson Adrian Lackay, adviser Yolisa Pikie, former anticorruption head Clifford Collings, former internal audit group executive Brian Kgomo, operations group executives Jerome Frey and Jacques Meyer, and later more than 150 people.

And that is without talking about the next levels of management who were sidelined, plus all their wives, husbands, children and their families.

According to some close to the affected persons, there’s common consensus that the “salacious propaganda stories” – a phrase used in conversation with The Citizen – enabled state capture, allowed cases to vanish, and some “being hounded” by elements of the Hawks crimes against the state and National Prosecuting Authority priority litigation units.

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