Herald will report in the public interest

About three weeks ago the Hawks raided the office of sitting Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani. Investigators seized computers and documents. At the time, the Hawks said the raid formed part of their investigation into fraud, corruption and money laundering. On Monday, this newspaper reported on the reasons for the swoop – details that are contained in an affidavit of the Hawks investigator which formed the basis of a search warrant served on the mayor at the time.

In it, the investigator lists seven payments totalling R664,000 which were paid into Bobani’s account between March 2014 and May 2015 by a company accused of siphoning money meant for the IPTS.

Since we published the article, this newspaper has come under attack, particularly from UDM president Bantu Holomisa, who is demanding to know how the information was leaked to us.

There are three important things to note here.

The most obvious is our unwavering belief that the publication of this information is overwhelmingly in the public interest.

While we respect that the matter is still under investigation, it must also be borne in mind that the million people who live in this city have a right to know why the police raided the offices of their mayor.

Two, the demand by Holomisa for us to declare how this information was leaked to us is simply absurd.

Not only are we not obliged to reveal this, it is common practice in SA and the world over for newspapers to protect confidential sources.

Finally, it is indeed peculiar that the UDM’s concern, in as far as this case is concerned, so far lies more with how we got this information than with the substantive matter of the serious allegations contained in official police documents implicating the mayor in one of the city’s biggest corruption scandals.

The IPTS case is in the public interest and, as such, we will continue to report on it without fear or favour.