The Sunday Times Newspaper South Africa is a popular South African Sunday newspaper. It has an audited circulation of 504,000 and a weekly readership of 3.2 million, making it the largest weekly newspaper in South Africa. Recently it was involved in exposing a corruption scandal involving the South African government’s US$6 billion arms deal. The newspaper was founded in 1906.
The Sunday Times is no stranger to controversy, given its hardline approach to South African politics. On 5 November 2007 it was reported that a consortium containing some senior government figures had launched a bid to purchase 100% of Avusa (previously Johncom), the company which owns The Sunday Times.
In 1992, the former columnist Jani Allan sued the British broadcaster Channel 4 for libel over affair allegations involving her and Eugene Terre’Blanche.Allan had previously interviewed the AWB leader for the Sunday Times.Allan had already settled out of court with the London Evening Standard and Options magazine over similar allegations.The then-news editor of the newspaper, the late Marlene Burger and newspaper astrologer Linda Shaw testified against Allan. Prior to the libel suit, Allan had published articles for the newspaper dismissing the affair allegations.Allan also allowed the newspaper to publish answerphone messages left by Terre’Blanche as well as her threats of taking legal action against Terre’Blanche for nuisance contact.Allan lost the case; the judge ruled that she had not been defamed but did not conclude whether or not an affair had taken place.The case became notorious for violence and a dirty tricks campaign.Publications such as the Financial Mail and Allan herself speculated that the defense witnesses were paid by the De Klerk regime in an attempt to destabilise the far-right in South Africa.Shaw recounted her editor, Ken Owen’s reaction to the case “When I came back from London. Owen stood in the middle of the newsroom and said: ‘You have single-handedly destroyed the reputation of every journalist in the country and we have become the laughing stock.”
On 13 November 2005, The Sunday Times broke the story that popular African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma was being investigated on rape charges. It was reported that Jacob Zuma considered legal action against the publication, although it later emerged that an investigation was in fact under way. On 6 December 2005, official rape charges were filed against Jacob Zuma. Zuma would later be acquitted of rape.
By 2006, Jacob Zuma’s discontent with The Sunday Times grew intensely. In March 2007, Zuma sued the paper for 6 million Rand over two columns by popular columnist David Bullard. The two columns, “Stupidity a mitigating circumstance for Zuma”, published on 16 April 2006, and “Visit the Zuma website to see what was meant” (May 7, 2006) were cited by Zuma as defamatory and an “impairment of his dignity”.Although David Bullard was found to be operating within the ethical bounds of The Sunday Times regarding the two columns, he would later fall out of favour with Editor Mondli Makhanya.
On 10 April 2008 Bullard was fired from The Sunday Times after the publication of a column on 6 April 2008 (Uncolonised Africa wouldn’t know what it was missing) received stern protest from several political parties. The editor apologised for the column, saying “by publishing him (Bullard) we were complicit in disseminating his Stone Age philosophies”.
In September 2008, The Sunday Times was again vigorously attacked for publishing a highly controversial piece, this time in the form of a cartoon by critically acclaimed cartoonist Jonathon Shapiro (Zapiro). The cartoon depicted Jacob Zuma getting ready to rape the Justice System while being assisted by the leaders of various ANC and political factions and parties. Zapiro denied any ambiguity between Jacob Zuma’s depiction as a rapist in the cartoon and his earlier rape trial. The Sunday Times and its editor were slated by various ANC officials. A joint press release by the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the ANC Youth League lambasted The Sunday Times editor, describing him as a dictator, and called for his replacement: “We can only hope that the newspaper will find a suitable leadership other than the ranting dictator who finds joy in manipulating the truth.”
