Marius Fransman's cynicism ("Why Helen Zille is targeting the Cape Times" - Politicsweb, April 4) demands a response.
In it he seeks to perpetuate the recent inference that previous editors of the newspaper were generally racist and in thrall to the Democratic Alliance. Fransman says the editors were at the "beck and call" of Premier Zille.
This, of course, implies subservience to a politician and a breach of journalistic independence.
As a former editor of the newspaper (from 2001 to 2006) and then editor-in-chief of Independent Newspapers Cape (from 2009 to 2013), my experiences suggest the opposite.
Much of the current propaganda effort is aimed at discrediting Alide Dasnois, axed as editor in December 2013. The depth of its cynicism is evident in the fact that Dasnois was ideologically about a thousand miles apart from Zille and the DA: broadly speaking, her political positioning would have been to the left of the DA and most of the ANC. She did, however, have much in common with the labour movement within the ANC and its leftist allies.
She reported to me during her editorship and there were occasions where I felt that an animus towards the DA's policies was showing in news choices and pointed this out to her.