Max du Preez forced to remove posts to leaked SAA memo
Cape Town - Columnist Max du Preez said on Thursday on his Facebook page he was forced to remove the posts directing the public to a leaked South African Airways memorandum - or face legal action.
This follows a gagging order the national carrier obtained against media outlets BDFM, Moneyweb and Media24 on Tuesday to stop them from publishing the contents of an internal memo dated 6 November 2015 to the SAA board from former acting CEO Thuli Mpshe.
The memo, prepared by the head of legal, risk and compliance at SAA, Ursula Fikelepi, to the board of the airline, contained "privileged" and "highly confidential" information of a “very sensitive nature". The information could have "the potential of causing real and serious reputational and financial damage to the applicant (SAA) and the government of the RSA", Fikelepi said in an affidavit to support the urgent interdict against the media outlets.
SAA obtained the urgent interdict in the early hours of Tuesday morning to prevent the media outlets from publishing the contents of the memo, but it was too late to stop Business Day newspaper from publishing the article in its print edition on Tuesday morning.
All three media houses were also ordered to "remove all references to the opinion including all or any of the contents of the opinion that has already been published on the internet and social media".
Du Preez said when he learnt that SAA management had obtained the court order, he posted a link to “that document” on Twitter and Facebook.