Gordhan, Booysen submit Press Council complaints against Sunday Times

Durban - The Sunday Times will have to face two fresh complaints to the Press Ombudsman, lodged by KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan.

It is understood that Booysen has lodged a complaint regarding the paper's coverage of the so-called 'Cato Manor Death Squad' and that Gordhan's complaint was in respect of an SA Revenue Services (Sars) 'rogue unit'.

Press Council Public Advocate Latiefa Mobara on Friday confirmed that both Gordhan and Booysen had submitted complaints.

"We cannot supply further details because we consider the process to be confidential. I can confirm that [Gordhan and Booysen] have submitted complaints against the Sunday Times and that they are in the evaluation phase," she said.

An explosive affidavit by former Sunday Times journalist Pearlie Joubert was read out in a Press Ombudsman hearing on Tuesday as part of a bid to discredit the newspaper's reports on the Sars 'rogue unit'.

Mohamed Husain, representing former senior Sars officials Ivan Pillay and Johann van Loggerenberg, read out the affidavit at the hearing.

Pillay and Loggerenberg have lodged a complaint against the Sunday Times following a series of reports regarding Sars and an alleged illegal unit which was accused of running a brothel and spying on President Jacob Zuma, among other things.

Both men were suspended from Sars pending investigations into the allegations of a rogue unit, but later resigned.

In the affidavit, Joubert claimed that she resigned from the newspaper in February because she was not "willing to be party to practices at the Sunday Times which I verily believed to have been unethical and immoral".

This article first appeared on News24 - see here.