Sometimes we get it wrong….

TWO weeks ago one of our reporters picked up a story that there had been a drama at East London airport where a passenger on a flight had allegedly made some threatening remarks, resulting in the police being called and the passenger being arrested.
In the course of reporting it, however, the story developed in an unexpected direction when police sources told us that the person who was arrested was none other than the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Toko Xasa. Two separate police sources insisted this was the case and a third witness at the airport repeated it. Our reporter then contacted Xasa who emphatically denied it and said she was not even on the plane.
Our reporting established that the case was being handled as high-profile and information about it was tightly guarded.
In the end we ran a story describing the mysterious events, the claim that the a deputy minister had been arrested and her vehement denials.
In the course of last week I was contacted by one of Xasa’s relatives who was unhappy with the story. I explained the sequence of events and how we had represented the story. We had finally managed to establish that the detained passenger was none other than Vatiswa Bam-Mugwanya, an ANC MP and we ran another prominent story about this this past Saturday.
Xasa’s relative was adamant that the deputy minister was owed an apology. My view was that we had fairly represented the mysterious circumstances of the original incident and we could not ignore a claim from official sources that a deputy minister had been detained. We also extensively represented Xasa’s denial in our original story.
I also believe that public figures need to be prepared for more robust treatment than others.
However, I can also appreciate that Xasa and those close to her would be upset at her name being linked to the incident at the airport.
There’s no getting around the fact that our sources were wrong. There appears to have been an odd congruence of circumstances which led to one plus one equalling three.
So, under the circumstances I feel it is fair that I offer the deputy minister my apologies. When our leaders step off the straight and narrow it is right that the press are there to bark and shout, but Xasa did no wrong here and I can understand that, based on our original story, that some would think she had.
We’re sorry, deputy minister.