Star blames 'unsavoury' sources
2012-12-19 11:30
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2012-12-19 09:01
Cyril Ramaphosa has returned to South African politics. The businessman, who was one of the architects of the Constitution, has been away from politics since the mid-1990's. Watch. WATCH
Johannesburg - A report that ANC deputy president Cyril
Ramaphosa would decline his nomination was the result of "unsavoury"
sources, The Star newspaper said on Wednesday.
"Our reporter who worked on the piece was led down an
unsavoury garden path," said editor Makhudu Sefara.
He said the paper apologised to Ramaphosa for the article.
"It's a pity that even with the best of intentions and
efforts, errors will creep in and reporters will be misled. We're all fallible.
To err is human.
"The point, though, is to avoid or minimise them and to
improve quality-control checks.
While Sefara apologised for the Star's error, he also called
out other media reports that erroneously said he had disregarded concerns on
the article from Independent Newspapers' deputy political editor Gaye Davis.
"For the record, this was not so," he said.
Incorrect assumption
Sefara said Davis had not been in contact with him directly
and her complaints about being ignored were due to a misunderstanding between
Davis and the writer of the article.
"She has since apologised to me for this incorrect
assumption," he said.
Davis resigned on Monday from Independent Newspapers to
"publicly disassociated" herself from the article.
She said she had received confirmation from Ramaphosa on Sunday
evening that he was accepting the nomination and had spoken to the writer of
the article but was told the paper was standing by the story.
- SAPA
