Journalists turn the screws on miscreants

Dear DM168 readers,

Although our conscientious tribe of journalists across the spectrum has been hot on the heels of Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester and his celebrity doctor girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana (more so than the police, who have not yet arrested the swindlers), all credit is due to the dogged investigative work of nonprofit donor-funded news agency GroundUp.

It was vindicated when DNA evidence was released by the Correctional Services Department showing that the burnt body found in the Mangaung prison cell was not that of Bester but of an unknown victim of blunt-force trauma.

The audacity of Bester and Magudumana makes for salacious reading. But what GroundUp has uncovered – followed up by other media houses – that is of grave concern are the pitfalls of public-private partnerships in prison management, and possibly in other spheres, when not strictly monitored and managed.

Journalists made it impossible for Correctional Services to continue denying that a badly managed, private prison allowed a convicted murderer and rapist to walk out aided and abetted by prison officials.

At the time of writing, the police have still not found Bester and Magudumana.

What GroundUp and other media outlets have done is something the social media multitudes do not do when they spread disinformation and misinformation.

It’s easy to spread rubbish compared to what journalists in this struggling industry are compelled to do by our self-imposed Press Code of ethics. We have to check every fact and quote, and respect constitutional rights, and if we are wrong, we must publicly correct our mistakes.

It’s not easy being a journalist in this digital soup dominated by global tech behemoths like Facebook and Google, which have taken huge chunks of journalism’s advertising. Once newspapers were largely supported by advertising; we now have to depend much more on our cover prices.

To keep doing what we do at DM168, we have to raise our cover price from R25 to R29 from this Saturday.

On page 10 we share GroundUp’s story on Bester and Magudumana’s scam.

In our lead story on pages 4 and 5 we ask whether the leaders the DA chooses this weekend will be able to gain more votes in next year’s election as the ANC stumbles from one crisis to another.

I am taking a break for the Easter holidays and handing over to Sukasha Singh. Send your comments or ideas to her at sukasha@ dailymaverick.co.za

Yours in defence of truth, Heather