THE JONAS STORY & LOTTO JOURNALISM AT THE SUNDAY TIMES

Dear Bongani Siqoko Editor of the Sunday Times,

          When you are trying to bring down South Africa’s President and generally picking on the rogues and incompetents of this world it’s incumbent upon you to ensure that your paper’s reputation for accuracy and fairness is as immaculate as reasonably possible.

          But you can’t do this if the inadequacies of your staff are such that apologies become a regular feature of your paper.

          Since I began following this “sorry story” your paper has carried an apology of some kind almost every single week since  20 December last year(http:sunday times aiming for junk status)

          Most of the biggest ones were forced on your paper after a Press Ombudsman ruling while the less prominent ones were made voluntarily.

          A disturbing thread that runs through far too many of them is that your reporters don’t get both sides of the story and yet your paper is still prepared to publish them.

          Surely you must have been told in the early stages of your career that getting both sides of the story is an absolute must as it is one of the basic rules of journalism.

By not doing this your paper not only increases the risk of making a serious error but it also stands accused of being grossly unfair

          Then too it bolsters the old saying: “Don’t get the other side in case it spoils a good story.”

6 March: Got Gordhan's wife's
name wrong this time

          I accept that it takes a bit of time before complaints to the Ombudsman Johan Retief are finalised so the subject of his recent rulings can’t necessarily be laid at your door as you only became the Sunday Times Editor in November last year.

          Still I assume you must have taken note of them. You were already in the hot seat on 20 December when the following admission was included in your paper’s apology ordered by the Ombudsman after a complaint from Previn Gordhan the Minister of Finance.

          “We accept we were in breach of the Press Code for failing to seek Gordhan’s comment ahead of publication.”

          Having accepted that, your paper keeps on doing it.

          On 14 February in one of your increasingly common Matter of Fact voluntary apologies there was another admission that the person involved “was not asked to comment.”

          It was the same story on 21 February when the ironically named Matter of Fact told us that you had not given the person concerned “an opportunity to respond to the allegation.”

          And today 20 March the headline on Page 2 cries out “Ombudsman finds we failed to let parliament reply.”

          Even your lead story last week headed How Gutptas shopped for new minister showed that not getting both sides of the story appears to have become habitual on your paper.

          Alright you got away with it this time and only you and the reporters concerned will know if it was good luck or careful planning.

Jonas

 

          As you know this sensational political splash was based on nothing more than a series of unnamed “sources” - a very dubious form of journalism. It told readers that members of the Gupta family had offered the Deputy Minister of Finance Mcebisi Jonas the Finance Minister’s job held by Nhlanhla Nene.

             The significance being that the Gupta family are known to be very close to President Jacob Zuma and the meeting when this was supposed to have taken place occurred days before Nene was fired by Zuma.

          Your story again showed up the calibre of your own reporters by admitting that your paper was beaten to it by the London Financial Times and this is what sparked your interest in it that week.

          Your paper claimed the controversial meeting took place on 27 November last year, so while your ace scribes were sleeping the Financial Times was digging up the dirt on your turf from half a world away.

          In the old days of Fleet Street journalists got instantly dismissed for missing a big one like this.

13 March: In the Business
section. You would think
that there they would know
the difference between dollars
and rands 

          To get back to my original complaint; the Gupta story revealed that “numerous attempts to get comment from Jonas were unsuccessful yesterday.”  That could only have meant it was on Saturday, your publication day.

          That clause in the Press Council’s Code of Conduct was conveniently forgotten and like your paper has done often recently the story was put to bed without anybody speaking to the Government Minister who was the main focus of the report.

          If as you claimed you were piggy backing on a Financial Times story why was it that your reporters left it to Saturday, the last minute as it were, to try and get hold of Jonas.

          Some cynics might have said your reporters never spoke to Jonas in case he spoilt the big story of the week, like all the people that were named, by denying that he had ever been made the controversial offer.

          You would have thought that by having three of them Thanduxolo Jika, Qaanitah Hunter and Sabelo Skiti on the job at least one of them would have been able to locate Jonas.

          As it turned out a few days after your report was published Jonas publicly admitted that the story that the Guptas had made him the offer was true.

          BUT IT DOESN’T ALTER THE FACT THAT THE STANDARD OF JOURNALISM ON YOUR PAPER LEAVES MUCH TO BE DESIRED.        

          I wonder if the shareholders of Times Media, the owners of the Sunday Times, are happy with this lotto journalism. It’s lucky when you hit the jackpot, but when it’s played in a national Sunday paper with millions of readers it can cost a fortune in defamation damages when the wrong number comes up.

          Regards,

          Jon, the Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman who gives the other side.        

P.S. See also: http:press councils special protection

          

#ProudlyBroughtByANC - THE BANANA REPUBLIC SPECIALISTS

Dear Blog Readers,

         Somebody has just sent me South Africa’s memorable achievements under the rule of the African National Congress; otherwise known as the Banana Republic Specialists.

         It’s fascinating reading, but not if you happen to live in this once thriving tip of Africa. Here’s the list with a few of my additions. It reads like a HAIRY TALE.  

1.    In 19 years of rule unemployment has shot up by 60%, one of the highest rates in the world.

2.    The country is now the rape capital of the world.

3.    Since the ANC came to power the country has achieved the dubious distinction of being 140^th for education brilliance on a World list of 144 countries.

4.    Officially the world leader for hijackings.

South Africa's new national Coat of Arms

5.    The Police Force has hundreds of convicted criminals in its ranks, some in high positions and others who had a record before they joined. Now the top brass doesn’t know how to get rid of them because of stringent labour laws that make it virtually impossible to fire anybody.

6.    In the Top Ten for most murders.

7.    In 19 years the rand/dollar exchange rate has dropped from R3.41 to R10.00 and sliding.

8.    The Defence Force has gone from being the iron fist of Africa to a laughing stock that couldn’t defend Disneyland from an invasion of fluffy toys.

It's hard work for President Zuma, running a country into the ground

9.    There are now 10 times more people in squatter camps and 1000% more illegal immigrants.

10. Government hospitals are so bad that the only one Nelson Mandela could possibly have been admitted to was the top military hospital, but its VIP units had been closed for two years for renovations so he was treated privately.

11. All kinds of other facilities such as roads and municipal services are deteriorating rapidly.

12. Electricity and water supplies are teetering on the edge of a national disaster.

President Zuma as Zapiro sees him

13. Education at Government schools has all but collapsed.

14. Unions are striking mines into oblivion and their inflated wage demands are driving other businesses to the wall.

15. 90% of once prosperous farms bought by the Government from Whites to satisfy the demand from Blacks for land have failed.

16. Bloomberg recently scored 74 nations for their “stress factor” and it’s hardly surprising that South Africa is second from the top.

Head of the Wild Life Conservation Society

17. No other country has more convicted criminals in Parliament.

18. On the sporting front corruption and in-fighting has caused chaos in the administration of soccer, cricket and athletics and probably others I don’t know about.

19. Bafana Bafana the national football team is ranked 60^th in the world and 10^th in Africa even though it has the best facilities on the continent and is the flagship of the country’s most popular sport.

20. There are so many depressing defects in the country that it’s impossible to mention all of them. 

The President with another leopard skin in his cap

Fortunately nobody needs to worry if they follow the lead of the ANC Government. All is well according to these blinkered leaders.

     President Jacob Zuma gigglers childishly on television when talking about the state of the nation. But only he sees the joke as the Rand drops.

    

 Up tight Mathale

 Then when the Limpopo Provincial Premier Cassel Mathale gets moved to a slightly less plum job as an R800 000 a year Member of Parliament, the ANC’s spin doctor Jackson Mthembu announces that the party thanks Mathale for a prosperous, thriving and stable Limpopo.

     No doubt the party would say the same about the country under Zuma.

     I’ve just given you the TRUTH about the country. Now what’s the TRUTH about the Province that became notorious for its inability to deliver text books to its schools?

   

  The opposition Democratic Alliance MP John Steenhuisen summed up the situation perfectly when he wrote: Mathale has presided over one of the most corrupt and moribund administrations in the country.

     Five of his provincial departments are under national administration, while others are under investigation for corruption. While the citizens suffer deprivation the political elite has prospered handsomely.

     The greatest irony is that Mathale’s sacking appears to have little to do with his spectacular inability to govern effectively, but rather his outspoken opposition to No 1. 

THE ONLY HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA NOW IS TO VOTE THE DA INTO POWER. IT HAS ALREADY SHOWN THAT IT CAN GOVERN EFFECTIVELY IN THE WESTERN CAPE AND CAPE TOWN, WHERE THE ANC WAS PREVIOUSLY MESSING THINGS UP.

     Regards,

     Jon, a citizen hoping for a miracle.

World Scoop:What President Zuma whispered to the Blonde

Dear Readers,

Dressed to kill

         This is a world scoop? My sources have just revealed what the Media hasn’t even touched upon. Is this what you are not supposed to know?

         It’s what President Zuma, South Africa’s Number One ladies man, who has four wives, whispered to blonde bombshell Bronwyn Nielsen.       

         Today the business section of the Johannesburg based The Times carried this picture headed, Passing Comment: President Jacob Zuma whispers to CNBC Africa presenter Bronwyn Nielsen at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.



        

Funny Business?

           As you can see the photographer caught this touching moment brilliantly and many of you would surely have wanted to know what he whispered that was so hush, hush.

         Was it business as usually or something more important?  Hopefully I won’t be breaking any state secrecy laws if I now reveal what he said.

         Yours faithfully,

         Jon, who believes in telling you what you are not supposed to know.

         

HOLEY CONDOM I'VE GOT AIDS

Dear South African Sex Maniacs,

        Our African National Congress (ANC) is clearly your party. Tragically it’s so full of pricks that it can’t even tell the difference between a condom and a sieve. In spite of this it has been running South Africa for the past 18 years.

         And even with the best sexologist advisers in the land it still doesn’t understand what the withdrawal method means. It seems to think that if you withdraw a rubber full of holes you’ll be alright.

         No wonder we have one of the highest incidences of HIV and Aids in the world.

         As part of its R100-million centenary bash the ANC held an orgy in Bloemfontein, which has some historical significance or other for it.

         Its BIG KNOBS felt duty bound to make a show of trying to protect their followers from themselves. So they distributed 1.35-million French letters (sorry they were probably Xhosa or Zulu ones) to hotels, guesthouses, bars and dispensers in the bushes, at the tax-payers expense.

         Talk about over kill. Even their randy supporters wouldn’t have been able to rise to their high expectations. Reports put the number who attended at 100 000. So that makes 135 condoms per man, woman and child for each day of the four day shindig.

        Why they bothered I don’t know as our President Jacob Zuma had already set the country’s sexual standard by becoming notorious for not using a condom.

         Even on this special occasion the ANC failed to heed the unmentionable parts of its history.

         In its wisdom it decided that as the copulating masses were spraying Aids all over the place because they didn’t have the money to take any precautions the Government would hand out free balloons just like at a kid’s party.

         There were 300 - million distributed in 2003. I’m not sure how; they might have been dropped out of planes. But as the colour was not fashionable enough the then Minister of Health Manto Tshabala-Msimang, who made her name by promoting beetroot as a cure for Aids, decided to relaunch the Government’s brand a year later under the catchy name of  Choice.  

         She seemed baffled as to why people thought the Government ones were inferior to the commercial rubbers.

         I agree that’s hard to understand especially after 20-million punctured ones were withdrawn in 2007. The State’s common bugbear fraud had resulted in the Bureau of Standards passing this lot as perfect.

         In any case they didn’t have enough staff at the Bureau to try out that many.

         Unfazed our Manto told a 2008 Condom Week gathering that since the 2007 debacle all condoms had been subjected to rigorous testing.

         But what’s that saying? Employ pricks and you get holes.

         And that’s exactly what the bonkers, some of whom were HIV positive, discovered at the Bloemfontein celebrations.

         As usual the Government came up with its tried and tested answer by withdrawing the lot. But if this claim is true it must have collected used ones as well.

         So, rather than preventing Aids, the ANC’s grand scheme of free condoms for all is actually spreading it.

It seems the Pope was right when he said condoms were not the answer to the Aids epidemic.

But perhaps the ANC Government’s top secret plan is to breed a lot more party faithful, even if they are Aids ravaged, so its leaders can go on screwing the country for years to come.

         Is there any point in having a Bureau of Standards that contains just as many pricks as the Government? Rubber has never been its area of expertise.  Long before the ANC came to power its stamp of approval appeared on faulty retreaded tyres.

        So if you want to endanger the lives of people in a big way get the Bureau to do the recommending.

         The Government says: You have a Choice. But when it comes to your sexual well being, keep well away from any of its holey schemes.

         Yours faithfully,

         Jon, a former Condom factory tester, who was fired for taking quality too seriously.

China - Africa's new colonial master

Dear African Leaders,

        Yippee, isn’t it Great! The  Chinese are coming, sorry they’re actually here.  They’re swarming all over Black Africa.

         They have come as saviours of this dictator riddled, corrupt, incompetent, poverty stricken continent and are busy showing the clueless, work-shy locals how to put in infrastructure and how to build office blocks, bridges and other impressive structures.

         So you mustn’t do anything to offend them. You must all follow the excellent example set by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. He and his Government ensured that the Dalai Lama was not given a visa to enter the country when he was invited to attend the 80^th birthday celebrations of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

         This Tibetan, Buddhist high priest has been living in exile for years and has been hounded by the People’s Republic of China ever since it took over his country.  It has done its best to ensure that he doesn’t get into countries it can easily kick around.

         And those are mostly in Africa.

         A White friend, who travels a lot in Central and West Africa, told me that whenever he has taken a flight in this part of the world recently he has been just about the only non Chinaman on the plane.

         Of course the pay off for the little yellow men is a lot more than just keeping Tibet’s spiritual leader out of Africa.

         Could it be minerals and other raw materials to keep the burgeoning Chinese economy on the up and up? And will it mean that the Chinese will one day make everything in the world while everybody else is starving because that cut price, oriental competition has closed all the factories where they earned a living?

         You Africans mustn’t deluded yourselves into thinking you can apply your normal job reservation policy to these new colonialists.

         In South Africa for instance the Black Government has replaced Grand Apartheid, the previous White Government’s Whites only policy, with Grand Black Economic Empowerment. This is designed to ensure that Blacks outnumber every other race in Government and business by 10 to one or more.

        But they dare not try that with the Chinese. My friend tells me that on Chinese construction sites in West Africa you won’t see a single Black. Everybody is Chinese, even down to the labourers pushing wheel barrows full of cement.

         So however much they improve the infrastructure in your countries there are billions of Chinamen who all have to be working before they will make the slightest dent in your millions of unemployed Blacks.

         That’s what happens, my fellow African’s, when you sell your soul. And I wonder how much you leaders are getting out of this sale and whether you were happy to take your fees in Renminbi or if you got it in Dollars.

         You’ve been complaining for years about what White Colonialism did to your countries and your self esteem. So who will you blame now that the Chinese are doing the same thing all over again?

         But as you leaders have proved time again you don’t care a damn about what happens to your subjects as long as you are alright living in your mansions and travelling the world in your private jets.

         As you might have gathered I live in South Africa and I wonder if you could ask our President if I could have permission to replace our Black cook, maid and gardener with Chinese because I’ve just invited President Hu Jintao to stay for a few days.

I’m worried that if I don’t do that he will be insulted and that’s a risky thing to do to your Master. And it could also be very bad for the development of our country.

        It goes without saying that he won’t have an entry problem like the Dalai Lama because he doesn’t need a visa to visit one of the new outposts of the Chinese Empire.

         Yours respectfully,

         Jon

P.S. I heard that women in China are flocking to plastic surgeons to have their slit eyes made more Western so presumably Africans will soon be forced to have it done the other way round.

The King's speech - an Oscar for hypocrisy

Dear Anti-fur Lobbyists,

When Jennifer Lopez, singer and US idols judge recently appeared in Vanity Fair magazine looking as if she was naked except for a very revealing Artic fox fur coat, animal lovers were outraged. Britain’s Sun newspaper quoted a reader as saying, Fur is worn by beautify animals and ugly people. 

         Well I wonder what that reader as well as the anti-fur lobby would say about South Africa’s Zulu President, Jacob Zuma; the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and Chief Mangosuthu Buthlezi, a Member of Parliament and long time leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and their followers who don’t exactly subscribed to this, You shouldn’t wear animal fur nonsense.

         Has the Anti-Fur Society, the worldwide organisation for the betterment of fur bearing animals, ever said anything about what has been going on for decades in Kwazulu-Natal which is in the country that is supposed to be the most civilised part of Africa?
         And have the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) noticed?  It claims to be the biggest enemy of fur wearers in the world with over 2-million members and is supported by South Africa’s Oscar winner, Charlise Theron, Pamela Anderson and Sir Paul McCarthey’s ex-wife Heather Mills. He has also slammed Lopez for wearing animal furs.

         My question to these two bodies is this: Isn’t it time you started attacking African leaders with the same vigour that you use when getting stuck into film and TV stars as soon as they appear wearing animal fur.

         After his recent speech at the annual Reed Dance at his palace King Goodwill should have been awarded the hypocrisy Oscar of the year.  At the event the girls present the King with reeds to symbolise their purity which made the monarch’s words even more ridiculous.

He took the opportunity to tell his guests and the 3 000 maidens that he would personally hunt down the dogs who did not care about the future.

        The dogs he was referring to were rhino poachers.  And he told the crowd that included  President Zuma, the Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa, and guests from Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola that these animals are a wealth given by God to the people of Kwazulu-Natal.

        Change the way you are behaving because the killing of rhinos is a defiance of my order as your King to respect and protect wild life, he said.

         The King recalled that last year 333 rhinos were killed and so far this year the total was 274. Stop this, I urge you, he added.

The animals are being butchered because their horns can fetch up to $50 000 a kilo in Asia where they are believed to have all kinds of curative powers and are also an aphrodisiac.

         What do you think the King and his closest followers were wearing – LEOPARD SKINS. Uncharacteristically Zuma, who is normally covered in these spotted furs on these occasions, had on ordinary clothes.

Please Jennifer Lopez don’t encourage them. They already have a twisted enough view of preserving wild life. And the way they and the rest of Africa are going there won’t be anything left soon. It’ll be either eaten or used  for traditional robes or medicine.

The AK 47 is a lethal killing machine. 

         Goodwill sir, isn’t it time you started practising what you preach by showing some good will to the dwindling leopard population. They are just as much, if not more of a tourist attraction than rhinos.

         Leopards are protected in Provincial and privately owned reserves in South Africa, but are persecuted relentlessly outside these. Poison baits, cruel traps and other means are widely used to kill them and land owners who claim that a leopard has killed their livestock can easily get a destruction permit.

         The Government recently doubled the hunting quota for leopards to 150 for the country.

What else would you expect when all the President’s men have to be adorned with one of their skins on every ceremonial occasion? It’s tradition you know and artificial leopard skin just will not do.

So get cracking Anti-Fur Society, Petra as well as film stars and other high profile people, and raise hell all over the world so as to embarrass these African big wigs who think that some long standing tradition can go on being an excuse for blasting animals into extinction.

Regards

Jon, owner of a factory that makes fake leopard skin guaranteed not to change its spots.

P.S. That's Zuma dancing at one of his numerous weddings surrounded by leopard skins and wearing his traditional dark glasses.