Leaving the Sunday Times
I was never “let go” or “fired” from the Sunday Times, as some have falsely written or claimed. In fact, I have never faced a single disciplinary hearing, either at the Sunday Times, or at any other news outlet I have worked or written for over the past two decades. On the contrary, the editors I reported to always expressed the highest regard for my work and professional conduct.
The facts about my departure from the Sunday Times are as follows:
In late 2016 I decided to resign from my full-time job to free up time to work on books and films, but was asked to stay on for a couple of months.
In early 2017 I was contracted with a part-time retainer by BDFM, the business division of Tiso Blackstar – the same company that owned the Sunday Times. It is clearly absurd that a different division of the company that fired me would rehire me immediately afterwards.
Towards the end of 2018 , forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan went on the warpath against the Sunday Times for publishing an unflattering article about him, based on compromising WhatsApps between his assistant, Sarah-Jane Trent, and Robert McBride, who headed the Independent Police Investigative Directorate at the time.
‘Make no mistake, these journalists put their lives at risk tackling this story. That deserves to be honoured not dismissed’
Ray Hartley, former editor of the Sunday Times
The article spurred an enraged O’Sullivan, who needed to discredit the Sunday Times at all costs, to make blatantly false allegations that Mzi and I had been bribed to write fake stories. O’Sullivan has never been able to substantiate any of his wild allegations, even when given the opportunity – most recently, for example, at the Satchwell inquiry into media ethics (see paragraph 8.168).
By then I was a contract writer for BDFM and Mzi was still on the staff of the Sunday Times. O’Sullivan threatened an advertising boycott unless Tiso Blackstar cut ties with both of us and retracted various stories we’d written, including those on Cato Manor. Just as O’Sullivan was publicly threatening to “drive Tiso Blackstar shareholder value into the ground”, Johan Booysen approached the company to pressure the Sunday Times to withdraw the Cato Manor stories and return the awards we had won.
The Satchwell inquiry revealed that prior to the retraction, meetings were held between Booysen, O’Sullivan, Sunday Times editor Bongani Siqoko and Tiso Blackstar management. The purpose was to persuade O’Sullivan to “cease his negative campaigning”. None of the writers were invited to take part (paragraphs 8.68, 8.69, 8.74 and 8.199).
‘Politico-financial considerations have triumphed over the truth of journalism’
Satchwell inquiry
Mzi and I had nothing to do with the article that had so enraged O’Sullivan. But it happened to be published shortly before the launch of my book, Licence to Loot. There, former SA Revenue Service (SARS) executive Peter Richer, his family and friends, and a group of pop-up protesters I’d never seen or heard of before or since, staged a widely publicised protest against me, specifically for my contribution to the SARS rogue unit stories.
In the middle of this storm, Tiso Blackstar asked me to sign a settlement to lie low until my contract expired due to the bad publicity I was generating, with the option of discussing a renewal if the dust had settled by then. I agreed and signed the settlement, which explicitly states there was no wrongdoing on my part. This happened before the Sunday Times retracted the Cato Manor stories.
From what I’ve heard, a similar process was followed with Mzi.
Ray Hartley, who was the editor of the Sunday Times when the original Cato Manor articles were published, has strongly contested the subsequent retraction. “Make no mistake, these journalists put their lives at risk tackling this story. They waded knee-deep through the blood of KwaZulu-Natal’s killing fields, and that deserves to be honoured not dismissed,” Hartley wrote in a piece the Sunday Times refused to publish (News24 eventually did). “Did they make errors? Yes, they did. Were any of these errors fatal to the conclusion that irregular killings occurred? No they were not.”
Respected human rights campaigner Mary de Haas, a key source for the stories, was equally scathing of Siqoko’s retraction in an open letter that the Sunday Times did not publish either.
Mary de Haas, human rights campaigner, to Bongani Siqoko
‘Having re-read the report of 11 December 2011 I could see nothing obviously false about it, and those implicated had been given the right to respond. I would thus like you to explain to me and the public why you apparently accept that it is “fake news”.’
The Satchwell inquiry later found that Tiso Blackstar had struck a backroom deal with Johan Booysen and Paul O’Sullivan to retract the Cato Manor stories. It pointed out the Sunday Times editors and managers had caved into their threats, prioritising short-term commercial viability above editorial independence – without admitting to their readers that they had been intimidated into doing so.
The report concluded that “politico-financial considerations have triumphed over the truth of journalism”.
stephanhofstatter.com 