"Ombudsman e-mails expose three weeks of apology defiance by Sunday Tribune" - statement by KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize, August 18 2010

The editor of the Sunday Tribune, Philani Mgwaba has personally come out and elected to mislead not only his colleagues in the media, but also the public regarding his newspaper's refusal to publish an apology online.

I have therefore decided to set the record straight by making available correspondence exchanged between the ombudsman, the Sunday Tribune and ourselves which sought to plead with the Sunday Tribune to publish this apology:

On 18 June 2010, the ombudsman gave a ruling in my favour and found that the Sunday Tribune was in breach of the press code.

On 11 July 2010, the Sunday Tribune published an apology in their newspaper. On that same day I was out of the country. My family and I immediately searched for the article on the internet, but could not find it.

On 12 July 2010, the Press Ombudsman was contacted telephonically to inform him that the newspaper had not published the apology online. He assured us that he would urgently bring this to the Sunday Tribune editor's attention.

On my return from abroad, I made a follow up as there was still no apology appearing on the internet. On 26 July 2010, an e-mail was sent to the Press Ombudsman as a "follow up on our request that the Tribune publishes the apology online".

On the same day (26 July 2010), the Press Ombudsman responded: "I did speak to the newspaper at the time and they promised to attend to it. I'll check again tomorrow and get back to you"

After thoroughly checking the internet and all its search engines, we confirmed in writing to the ombudsman that "the apology still does not appear on the internet. I will now wait to hear from you once you have spoken to the newspaper again".

The Press Ombudsman made a follow up on the same day. He asked the Sunday Tribune to let him know what progress they've made.

On 28 July 2010, for the very first time, the Sunday Tribune, through its Sub Editor, Greg Arde, sent the ombudsman an e-mail saying they have the apology on their website and attached a link.

The Press Ombudsman forwarded this e-mail to us and an attempt was made to access this apology. It was then that we discovered that the Sunday Tribune had decided to hide the apology in its own website under the articles that are only accessed by their subscribers.

It is important to highlight at this point that not only did I complain about this unscrupulous conduct of the Tribune to the Press Ombudsman, but he himself expressed his unhappiness to the newspaper with their conduct. On 28 July 2010 he wrote the following to Tribune:

"I have logged onto the Independent Online (IOL) and the full story as it was originally written was available and there was nothing of the apology. It does not seem right. On your website there is no link between the apology and the original story. If I bump into the original story on your site, I would not know that you apologised for it. I'm certain you and your information technology (IT) people can find a much fairer solution."

On 3 August 2010, my family and I did yet another search on the internet and we still did not pick up an apology. Instead we could only access the defamatory article that they Tribune had published. Once again, a follow up was made with the Press Ombudsman.

We enquired whether "the Tribune had indicated if they have an intention of rectifying this anytime soon. I'm worried that the newspaper is dragging its feet whilst the premier continues to suffer prejudice. Please advise us if there are any developments".

On 10 August 2010 the Press Ombudsman forwarded another e-mail sent by the Sunday Tribune which had a link that was supposedly meant to connect me to the apology. After attempting to do so, we figured that this was not the case. There was still no apology published on the internet.

The Sunday Tribune had merely decided to expunge the article on their website and disregard my reque. On 15 August 2010 a response was sent to the Press Ombudsman, once again bringing to his attention that there was still no apology appearing.

This was followed by a telephone call between the ombudsman and us. We further advised the ombudsman that we now intended on proceeding legally by obtaining a court order directing the Sunday Tribune to publish the apology online. He acknowledged this and confirmed that this was now beyond his powers.

After all this hassle and on realising that the Sunday Tribune had decided to defy and disregard the Office of the Press Ombudsman, I then instructed my attorney to send a letter of demand. This letter was sent on 16 August 2010. I gave the newspaper 48 hours to post the apology, failing which I would approach the court for such relief.

I must clarify at this point that a press conference had been arranged even before I considered pursuing the legal route and issuing a letter of demand.

I felt it was important that I inform the public of the developments regarding my complaint to the Press Ombudsman.

By virtue of the fact that I had called a press conference to publicly deny the false allegations made about myself, my wife and my daughter, Nokulinda by the Sunday Tribune, it was just as important for me to alert the public that even the Press Ombudsman had ruled against this newspaper.

It was also important for me to clear my name as a public figure that has been entrusted with the responsibility of leading the people of KwaZulu-Natal, my wife's reputation who is a passionate community worker and a seasoned businesswoman and indeed my daughter's reputation who is a qualified and experienced professional and still has a bright future ahead of her.

It was only after the letter of demand was sent giving the Tribune 48 hours to publish the apology online and the press conference held on 17 August 2010 that my lawyer received a response from the Sunday Tribune stating that "the apology that was posted on the Tribune website is on IOL".

This was received at 12:44 on 17 August 2010. When this e-mail was brought to my attention, I searched for the apology and yes, it was indeed posted on the IOL website ONLY at 12:07 on 17 August 2010.

I therefore can only draw one conclusion that the Sunday Tribune has very little respect for the Office of the Press Ombudsman and its Editor, Philani Mgwaba is rather more "shaken" by the threat of taking the newspaper to court.

I must also express my disappointment by the poor ethic choices made by the Sunday Tribune's Editor Philani Mgwaba to not only play delaying tactics to publish the apology online, but also damaging his credibility and that of the Sunday Tribune by publicly making an unfounded denial when he is well aware of the factual truth.

Now that the apology has been posted on the internet, I consider the matter settled but the truth about the unnecessary delays is for the public to judge.

Statement issued by: KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier, August 18 2010

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