The Nkabinde Panel has credited investigative journalism with exposing alleged unlawful killings by the Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit, years after the Sunday Times apologised for the very investigation that first put the allegations on the national agenda.
The finding creates an extraordinary twist in one of South African journalism’s most controversial episodes.
In its June 30 report into the fitness of Gauteng South Director of Public Prosecutions Andrew Chauke, the panel, chaired by retired Constitutional Court justice Bess Nkabinde singled out the Sunday Times’ December 2011 front-page investigation into the Cato Manor unit.
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The newspaper had described the police unit as a “hit squad” or “death squad” and reported allegations of a pattern of unlawful killings in KwaZulu-Natal.
“But for our commendable investigative journalism, would the exposé have come to light?” the panel asked before reproducing the newspaper’s front page in its report.
The original December 11, 2011, Sunday Times “Shoot to Kill: Inside a South African Police Death Squad” investigation was by Stephan Hofstatter, Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Rob Rose. The three later won major awards for the investigation, including the 2012 Sikuvile Story of the Year and investigative journalism honours.
Exposé triggered state investigation
The inquiry found that the publication had consequences. It prompted a joint investigation by the Independent Complaints Directorate, now IPID, and the Hawks into the allegations against members of the unit.
The investigation later drew in the National Prosecuting Authority. By March 2012, more than 50 dockets were under investigation, with some requiring urgent prosecutorial decisions.
But seven years after publishing the exposé, the Sunday Times effectively disowned significant aspects of its own reporting.
In October 2018, then editor Bongani Siqoko published an extraordinary apology under the headline, “We got it wrong, and for that we apologise.”
The newspaper said it had made mistakes in its Cato Manor coverage, including overstating allegations in headlines and failing to give sufficient prominence to information favouring the police officers. It also said it believed its journalists had allowed themselves to be manipulated by sources with ulterior motives amid what it described as a wider political project involving battles within state institutions.
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The newspaper subsequently announced that it would return awards and prize money received for its Cato Manor reporting.
The inquiry’s findings now complicate that retreat.
Panel revives questions publication abandoned
While the panel did not adjudicate the quality of every claim made by the Sunday Times, it rejected one of the central propositions that subsequently surrounded the prosecution — that there had been no evidence supporting racketeering charges against the Cato Manor officers.
Nkabinde’s panel ultimately found that there was evidence supporting the institution of racketeering charges against Major-General Johan Booysen and members of the unit.
It also found that evidence presented at the inquiry overwhelmingly established a prima facie case for Booysen and his co-accused to answer.
The report therefore produces an uncomfortable historical reversal.
The newspaper that first forced Cato Manor into public view later apologised for major aspects of its journalism and returned its awards. Nearly 15 years after the original exposé, a judicial inquiry has now formally credited that reporting with triggering scrutiny of killings that, the panel says, still demand answers.
- The Nkabinde Panel credited the Sunday Times' 2011 investigation for exposing alleged unlawful killings by the Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit, leading to official scrutiny.
- The original investigation described the police unit as a "hit squad" and won major awards, including the 2012 Sikuvile Story of the Year.
- The exposé prompted a joint investigation by the Independent Complaints Directorate (IPID), the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority, resulting in over 50 case reviews by March 2012.
- In 2018, the Sunday Times apologized for overstating allegations in headlines and for not adequately presenting police-favouring information, returning awards related to the investigation.
- The Nkabinde Panel found evidence supporting racketeering charges against Major-General Johan Booysen and others, reaffirming the investigation's significance despite the newspaper's retraction.
