Sowetan says ‘Sorry, Ferial’ over ‘black snake’

JOHANNESBURG – The Sowetan newspaper apologised to City Press editor Ferial Haffajee yesterday for publishing a column that called her a black snake.

‘In his latest column, [Eric] Miyeni crossed the line between robust debate and the condonation of violence,’ said Sowetan and Sunday World general manager Justice Malala and Avusa editor-in-chief Mondli Makhanya in a statement on page 15.Titled, ‘Sorry, Ferial and All’, the pair apologised not only for the column, but also for their slow public response to the saga.Miyeni’s column, ‘Haffajee does it for white masters’, appeared in the daily on Monday.He wrote that ‘in the 80s she’d [Haffajee] probably have had a burning tyre around her neck’.’Who the devil is she anyway if not a black snake in the grass, deployed by white capital to sow discord among blacks?’City Press last week reported about African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema’s trust, which he allegedly uses to bankroll his lavish lifestyle.Miyeni, who openly supported Malema in a radio interview this week, was fired by the Sowetan for his personal attack on Haffajee.Malala and Makhanya said: ‘The necklacing of people during the dark days of apartheid was condemned by all progressive forces in our country.’Miyeni’s column went against the Sowetan newspaper’s values of ‘ubuntu-botho [humanity and humaneness]’, the pair said.On Wednesday, the paper announced that its acting editor Len Maseko had resigned after accepting ‘full responsibility for the publication of the column’, even though he was not at work on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.’We have instituted disciplinary proceedings against those who allowed the column to appear in the form that it did,’ said Malala and Makhanya.’Deep hurt has been caused not only to Miss Haffajee but to the wider South African public by the publication of this column.’For this we apologise unreservedly to Ms Haffajee and to all South Africans.’ – Nampa-Sapa