Appeal Decision: Dhlomo Mbali vs. Ilanga Langesonto

SUMMARY

The headline to the story in dispute read, Financial report causes friction among publishers – Suspected financial fraud and corruption all done under the name of the organisation (translated). This was published on 7 February 2016.

This ruling by the Chair of the Appeals Panel, Judge Bernard Ngoepe, was based on the Press Code that was in effect before 30 September 2022.

The story said some leaders of the KZN Community Publishers Primary Cooperative (Coop) were suspected of corruption. This organisation looked after the interests of community newspapers in that province. The story involved the secretary, Mbali Dhlomo, in the matter; the caption said she faced allegations of corruption.

Dhlomo complained that the journalist:

• falsely stated that she had committed fraud and had mishandled funds;
• misspelt her surname;
• inaccurately said that she was running Genuine Magazine;
• should have realized that, after she and the former chairperson, Sheila Mhlongo, put their cases to him, it was a non-story coming from a bitter person (Sam Masinga, the newly elected chairman);
• used a picture of her, while the story was not about her;
• inaccurately reported in the caption that she was the chairperson of the organisation in question; and
• deliberately attempted to tarnish her reputation, character and dignity.

The Ombud dismissed the crux of the complaint, mainly because:

• the story did not state that Dhlomo had committed fraud and had mishandled funds – the article was about allegations thereof; and
• it was not the newspaper’s job to prove or disprove the allegations – a publication did not have to prove an allegation before publishing it.

Ilanga LangeSonto was reprimanded for getting wrong the spelling of Dhlomo’s surname, her position in the Coop at the time, and the fact that she had no longer been running Genuine Magazine wrong.

Judge Ngoepe said he agreed with the Ombud’s ruling and that he had nothing to add to it. The application was dismissed.

THE RULING ITSELF

DHLOMO MBALI                                                                                         APPLICANT

VERSUS

[2]     The respondent contested the main complaint; that it did not accuse applicant of any fraud, but mere by reported the story in accordance with the information it had received from someone who had resigned as a result of the concerns he had about the financial affairs of the organization.  However, the respondent admitted fault with regard to the misspelling of applicant’s surname, and also conceded that she was no longer with the Genuine Magazine.

[3]     In his Ruling dated 18 April 2016, the Ombudsman dismissed the main complaint.  He said: “The crux of Dhlomo’s complaint is that the story falsely stated she had committed fraud and mishandled funds.  However, the story did not state any such thing.  Of course, the context of the article involved Dlhomo – not in fraud, though, but in allegations thereof.  The story itself did not even state her involvement explicitly; the caption did”.  The new chairman of the Co-operative had suddenly resigned; there were allegations of fraud which the respondent did not have to prove. I agree with him.  I need not add anything further.  I do not believe that there was a duty on the respondent to go about verifying the truth of the allegations, despite applicant repeated argument to the contrary. I can assure the applicant that one would be deeply concerned about damage to her reputation.  But the story was presented in such a way that there was no attack on her.  At worst the report caused the reader simply to ask whether there could have been some misconduct; this had to arise given the sudden resignation of the new chairman.

[4]     As sanction for the two mistakes made by the respondent, the Ombudsman reprimanded it and ordered it to correct them.  I do not think that the applicant has reasonable prospects of success before the Appeals Panel.  The application is therefore dismissed.

Dated at Pretoria this 26th day of May 2016

Judge B M Ngoepe, Chair, Appeals Panel