The age old story of David vs Goliath is often used in stories to encourage the underdogs to strap up their boots and stand up for themselves. This is one of those moments where such encouragement is needed for Joburg Post. On Sunday, 4th April 2021, the Sunday World newspaper published a story insinuating that the Joburg Post was a channel used as a means to defraud the VBS Mutual Bank of over a million Rands in loans and overdrafts.

The Joburg Post maintains its position that its dealings with VBS were completely above board and that monies were only ever paid to it for value received. The Sunday World has engaged in a trial by media and, in doing so, has not accurately reported the facts put forward by the Joburg Post in court papers. This was done without granting us the appropriate right to comment and answer any of the allegations before publishing them.

The damage done by these unfounded allegations is extremely easy to cause and almost impossible to fix. 

Asked for comment, the Joburg Post’s legal representative, Claudio Bollo, had the following to say: “This case amounts to a civil dispute between parties who have competing contentions about what was agreed. However, neither party can accuse the other of anything other than normal business dealings at arms length.  There can be no suggestion of fraud or dishonesty in what was a normal business transaction, which only failed to be completed because VBS was liquidated, and which failure came at great cost to the Joburg Post and its employees. Allegations alone, without evidence, and the mere fact of the Joburg Post having engaged in business with VBS, which stood to benefit from its association with us, rather than to suffer any prejudice, should not be allowed to tarnish the good name of the Joburg Post.”

It is indeed a sad day when one of South Africa’s biggest publications decides to go after an upcoming media and news publication with such malice, based on unfounded and one- sided accusations, without even hearing our side first. One can only hope that Sunday World sees where it has erred and moves swiftly to right this wrong.