Off the Record: Business Day journalist fights suspension in High Court

Sitting on the Biznews news desk is always exciting as we come across a countless number of emails. But every now and again one pops through the gate and gets the ears up. Media freedom is a constant battle in this country. On Monday journalists celebrated International Press Freedom Day, yet the day prior to this President Jacob Zuma told editors and journalists that the media had to be regulated as “they could not do as they pleased”. The claim below further questions media freedom and who controls it. It’s a call from Samuel Mungadze, a journalist at the Business Day, who’s been suspended following his investigations into the Industrial Development Bank of South Africa.

But in any situation there are more than two sides to a story. Mungadze’s boss Songezo Zibi, who is editor at the newspaper, says they received no undue pressure from the IDC to follow through on the suspension. Zibi goes on to say that Sam broke ‘off the record’ protocol. Zibi has also given us his affidavit which is below.

It’s a tale which leaves many questions unanswered. This is Samuel Mungadze’s call to action to protect freedom of expression. – Stuart Lowman

From Samuel Mungadze (his call to action)

  1. My name is Samuel Mungadze. I am an adult male currently employed as a Senior Reporter by the Business Day, a business newspaper publication under the Times Media (Pty) Limited, stable.
  2. I am a father to a daughter of 8 years.
  3. I have been working in the media industry as a journalist for the past 15 years.  I am an active member of The 1873 Network, a not-for-profit, member-based and non-partisan organisation; that provides a platform for sharing ideas, experiences and insights.
  4. The facts below may shock you but they do provide a glimpse into the scary atmosphere that journalists have to operate under.  I set out below, my own personal experiences of what happened between 24 September 2015 and 27 September 2015 when I was surprised by a notice of suspension issued by my employer of more than 4 years.
  5. It was at a luncheon held on Thursday, 24 September 2015 hosted by the Network that I first got wind of the fact that the bank account of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (“IDC”) had been frozen following the execution of a writ issued by Africa Resources Limited (“ARL”), a company under the control of Mr. Mutumwa Mawere, a fellow member of the said Network, pursuant to an order of court granted in favour of ARL in the sum of about R5.8 million plus interest earned on the funds held by the IDC since 12 April 2010.
  6. To me this was a big lead and naturally I followed up the story the following day by contacting the spokesman of the IDC, Mr. Mandla Mpangase through an email to confirm the story.  Initially, Mandla denied any knowledge of the allegation of the freezing of the IDC bank account.  He only confirmed this to be the case after further probing.
  7. We agreed with Mandla that he was to give me a definitive story by 10:00amon Sunday, 27 September 2015 of the facts and circumstances of the attachment of the IDC bank account.  On Sunday, as promised, I finally received confirmation that indeed the IDC bank account held with ABSA Bank had been attached but the IDC confirmed as fact that the order of court had been complied with.
  8. However, Mandla had indicated that ABSA had acted outside its mandate by freeing the bank account which prompted me to verify with ABSA officials why they had purportedly acted outside their mandate.
  9. Although the subject of initial interest to me was the freezing of IDC’s bank account, it became fairly obvious that there was more to the story.  One allegation made by Mr. Mawere on behalf of ARL was that he was a victim of a conspiracy involving underhand tactics of officials of the IDC and other parties.
  10. The allegations made by Mr. Mawere were so serious that I had no choice but to investigate them.  Having established that the account of the IDC had been attached, I proceeded to write the story that was then published in the Business Day’s edition on Monday, 28 September 2015 titled: “IDC’s bank frozen in legal wrangle with businessman.”
  11. On Monday, the day of the publication, I contacted Mandla telephonically to follow up on the payment to ARL as I had established that contrary to the confirmation by IDC that the payment had been effected in compliance with the order of court, no such payment had been received by the Sheriff.  In addition, I raised the issue of a purported loan of R982,122 made by the IDC to the insolvent estate pursuant to an agreement between the IDC and the Joint Liquidators of Salister Diesels (Pty) Limited (“Salister”)(in liquidation), a company in which the IDC was a secured creditor.
  12. It soon emerged that the facts and circumstances of this loan was a highly contested issue not only between ARL and IDC but between ARL and the Joint Liquidators.  According to the IDC, a loan was granted to the insolvent estate of Salister.  However, from the records made available to me, the sole purpose of the loan was to pay legal costs to an attorney and counsel.
  13. According to Mawere, the purported loan was attempts by the IDC to control the estate of Salister in order conceal its unlawful actions in withholding ARL’s funds without reliance on any legal authority.  It is Mawere’s case that the decision by IDC to arbitrarily withhold ARL’s funds was driven by ulterior motives and at the time of liquidation of Salister, IDC was holding both the security and the funds implying that an independent and impartial liquidator would have challenged the locus standi of the IDC in the affairs of the insolvent estate of Salister.
  14. It is alleged that the IDC embarked on a scheme to ensure that the ARL funds would not be refunded to ARL and one such actions was to use the services of Advocate Fiona Dippenaar, Thabile Fuhrmann, and Mr. Theordore Van Den Heever.
  15. I needed to establish from the IDC whether the loan was granted and the facts supporting the decision to provide a loan to an insolvent estate especially given that the IDC is a public institution.   The confirmation by the IDC that it does provide loans to insolvent estates was material allowing me to probe even further.
  16. The last communication I had with the IDC was at 6:19pmon Monday, 28 September 2015 seeking certain clarifications regarding the loan. I gave the IDC a deadline of 12 midday; the following day.
  17. Before the expiry of the deadline, I was called by my editor who informed me that he had received a call from the CEO of the IDC for a meeting to discuss my story.  We discussed about the court order and the facts relating to the status of payment to ARL. We then phoned Mr. Mawere to seek clarifications on certain aspects of the judgment.
  18. The Editor, Mr. Songezo Zibi, asked me to accompany him to the meeting with the IDC.  We met representatives of the IDC comprising the CEO, Mandla and Marcus from the legal department.  Instead of the meeting focusing on the unanswered questions, it was clear that the IDC did not want us to pursue the angle that I had started which would expose the alleged corruption, fraud, and dishonesty on the part of the IDC in relation to the pre and post-liquidation affairs of Salister.
  19. The meeting focused on allegations made by the IDC against Mr. Mawere and when we left the meeting, it was clear that there was no interest whatsoever by the IDC to entertain any questions regarding the conduct of its officers in relation to Salister including the facts relating to the loan provided to the insolvent estate.
  20. On our way back from the meeting, I discussed briefly with my editor about the meeting and the way forward.  It was clear that my editor wanted the focus to shift from the allegations made against the IDC to an attack on the integrity and reputation of Mawere.
  21. I called Mawere to get his side of the story regarding serious allegations made against him by the IDC.  I met with him on Tuesday night and briefed him at length on the allegations made against him by the officials of the IDC.
  22. It was only on Wednesday at around 8amthat I received a call from my editor who wanted to meet me urgently.  I met with him where he asked me whether I had met with Mawere.  I confirmed that I had met with Mawere and briefed him about what was discussed with the IDC.  He was taken aback and he said that he felt betrayed as his strategy was to keep Mawere in the dark so that we could entrap him.
  23. I was then told to go home by my editor.  I went home and only came back to work on Monday, 5 October.
  24. On 7 October I was issued with a letter of suspension.  The details about what happened are contained in the court application that I have made in the High Court of South Africa, South Gauteng Division.
  25. The matter is to be heard on Thursday, 22 October 2015.  This matter raises a number of constitutional, legal and public policy issues hence my decision to write this letter to you.
  26. The kind of response by my employer based on IDC’s pressure is chilling because a particularly insidious threat to our collective right to free expression is tantamount to self-censorship.  My voice has been removed from the market place of ideas and the story that I was chasing about the abuse of public power and corruption has been killed.
  27. I am now at home pondering about my own predicament.  I now know what a difference two weeks can make to one’s life.  I am mindful that I cannot fight the status quo alone but an injury to one scribe is an injury to all scribes.
  28. It is a wake up time for all of us. I urge you to spare some time to read the court papers to better appreciate what is at stake and what can go wrong if we choose to remain silent.  I have been fortunate to be surrounded by a supportive network under the umbrella of the 1873 Network to fight back.
  29. I do hope that you can join me in this fight for justice and fairness. Today it is me, but who knows when injustice will knock on your door. Let us commit ourselves to zero tolerance of tyranny.

Samuel Mungadze’s High Court application

Download the affidavits here:

Samuel_Mungadze_Court_Application

Songezo_Zibo_Times_Media_Affidavit

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