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- Sanef has expressed its support to News24 ahead of its showdown with two of Deputy President Paul Mashatile's close allies.
- Mike Maile and Bridgman Sithole are taking the publication to court over the term “Alex Mafia”.
- The term has been used in press reports for years, but the pair launched an application after News24 ran a series of articles exposing Mashatile.
As the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg prepares to hear an application brought by Deputy President Paul Mashatile's close allies against News24 using the term “Alex Mafia”, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has slammed their attempt to use the court to "gag a media house".
Sanef in a statement on Monday condemned the application by Mike Maile and Bridgman Sithole, which it said demonstrated an attempt to trample on media freedom.
“The pair want the court to stop News24 from using the term ‘Alex Mafia’ referring to them. Sanef finds this case ridiculous given that this term has been ubiquitously used for several years – to refer to those who, like Mashatile, originate from Alexandra township in Johannesburg and are connected to the deputy president through business or political links,” Sanef said.
Mashatile is a public figure and the deputy president, making his dealings a matter of public interest, the organisation argued.
“The public has a right to know who the deputy president associates with and how they influence him or vice versa. The media and the political commentariat constantly refer to influential businesspeople who live in Stellenbosch as the ‘Stellenbosch Mafia’.
Sanef said:
In his answering papers, News24's editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson on behalf of Media24, said: "These are far-reaching incursions into free speech, free press, and even political freedom. The interdict sought would strike a blow not only against our rights but also the rights of the public.”
The two have brought the application against Basson, News24 assistant editor for investigations Pieter du Toit, and News24 investigative reporters Sipho Masondo, Azarrah Karrim and Kyle Cowan.
News24 has published a series of investigative stories exposing Mashatile’s links to various businessmen, including the controversial Edwin Sodi.
Basson said the media had a duty to publish this information.
He added that the court application was "an abusive effort at prior restraint against Media24, at the very time that Mashatile's ambitions for president of the country and the ANC move to centre stage in South African politics”.
The matter will be heard on Wednesday.
Another gag
Meanwhile, Sanef has also criticised the decision by Russia to revoke the accreditation of Daily Maverick correspondent Peter Fabricius as illogical and a flagrant abuse of authority.
Fabricius was ready to fly to St Petersburg for the Russia-Africa summit last week, only to find out the day before departure that his accreditation had been rescinded. No explanation has been forthcoming.
“Sanef had learned that when Daily Maverick requested the organising committee to reconsider the decision to revoke his accreditation, it was told that ‘revision is not possible’. What Sanef finds ridiculous is that Fabricius received his accreditation on 18 July to cover the summit over 27 and 28 July.
“Fabricius is a respected veteran journalist and foreign affairs expert who covered the inaugural summit in 2019 in Sochi. These trips are costly for media houses, but independent coverage of the event was of public interest and particular importance to South Africa given President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attendance."
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Sanef aligned itself with the International Press Institute, which pointed out that the summit occurred amid the grain deal's collapse between Russia and Ukraine.
It said the summit was of immense international public interest, particularly given its impact on Africa.
“The revocation of Fabricius' accreditation follows the recent unfortunate event where South African journalists were ill-treated and stuck on a plane in Poland and could not report on the African Peace Mission to Russia and Ukraine. Sanef will soon be meeting the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, to discuss this issue, among others," the organisation added.
