Questions have been raised over the attendance, by two senior Independent Newspapers group editors, of the recent ANC 103rd anniversary rally in Cape Town in ANC branded clothing. In an article in the Daily Maverick the journalist Mariann Thamm stated that Group Executive Editor, Karima Brown and Group Editor of Opinion and Analysis, Vukani Mde, had posted pictures of themselves on social media "decked out in ANC regalia attending the party's 103rd celebrations in Cape Town" (see picture here).
Thamm noted that since Iqbal Survé's acquisition of the group - and the installation of Brown and Mde in their positions - many veteran journalists have been culled from the Cape Times in particular. They include Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois, Tony Weaver, Janet Heard and the veteran columnist John Scott who was recently "unceremoniously dumped by the paper."
"In April last year" Thamm wrote, "Business Report journalist Donwald Pressly was fired for seeking political office with the Democratic Alliance, a move which ... Karima Brown, described as ‘a breach of Independent Newspapers' editorial code of conduct and code of ethics and a breach of the trust that those readers place in our titles and the writers who put them together'."
Thamm asked whether it would be "acceptable to Brown and Mde" if one of their subordinates attended "a DA federal congress or birthday party or an EFF event, posted photographs of themselves decked out in those party's colours?" And, furthermore suggested, that Brown and Mde publicly disclose to their newspapers' readership "their apparently unwavering political allegiances."
The article was met with a furious reaction by Brown and Mde on social media. In response to a posting by Thamm of a link to her article on her Facebook page Brown commented: "I am wearing a hat! WTF? My political orientation is hardly a secret and my reporting on the ANC has never been anything but factual. Am I a card carrying member of the ANC no. Was I ever. Yes when it was an underground organisation and before I was a journalist. Am i going to apologise for being Left and a socialist.. never."
On the substance of Thamm's piece she made two points: