In the latest instalment of her "Backstory" series, Gill Moodie writes exclusively for journalism.co.za:

Ah, politics in Cape Town. The cynical allegiances. The bitter battles. The spy tapes and the scandals.

A review of the city and province’s politicians over the past 15 years reads like the cast of characters in a Carl Hiaasen novel: the musical Peter Marais and Gerald Morkel who liked to lunch with Jurgen Harksen, Niel Barnard and his penchant for spy games and then lately we’ve had Ebrahim Rasool v Mcebisi Skwatsha and Helen Zille v Badih Chabaan.

This contested, murky battleground is a fascinating place to be a political journalist but, as we have seen last week, it is also a dangerous one. The Cape Argus gobsmacked us all on Wednesday with revelations that Ashley Smith, a reporter for the Argus until he resigned amid a disciplinary enquiry in April 2006, had confessed in an affidavit to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that he acted as a spindoctor for Rasool, then the Western Cape premier. 

Rumours of this skullduggery had been bubbling around for quite some time and the Argus itself first came across the allegations five years ago when members of the Western Cape ANC claimed that two of the paper’s staff members were secretly being paid to write news articles that were favourable to Rasool. Click here to read the Argus’s story run on page 15 of the paper on Wednesday about the sequence of events over the five years and their attempts to nail down the allegations.

The Argus’s Wednesday package made for shocking and utterly compelling reading. If true, this is a serious breach of journalistic ethics and a terminal abuse of the public’s trust in journalism. Not since former City Press editor Vusi Mona, now a spindoctor in the presidency, emerged as a chief player in a bribery scandal in a Mpumalanga court case last year, have we had such skandaal in Media Land.

But I think everyone is agreed that the Argus, which is owned by Independent Newspapers,  played this exactly right. Most hacks – whether they be junior reporters or editors – find that if they apologise sincerely when things go wrong or mistakes are made that the readers are, in fact, quite forgiving. 

Under the astute and ethical leadership of Chris Whitfield, a former editor of both the Cape Times and Argus and now editor-in-chief of  both papers plus the Weekend Argus and Daily Voice, the Argus played open cards with its readers to a remarkable degree. The cynical among us might say they had to ‘fess up before another paper got hold of it. In fact, the Mail & Guardian had a stab at it last year based on a set of tape recordings involving Rasool’s successor, Lynne Brown.  Whitfield, however, felt the M&G story – which alleged Argus reporters were being paid cash in brown envelopes –  was on shaky ground factually and the M&G’s ombudsman agreed. (Incidentally, payments of this kind did not come up in Smith’s confession.)

It is clear from the Argus’s own tale of how they finally got to the bottom of the allegations that they made every effort over five years to pursue it and lay their hands on actual evidence of wrong-doing. And in fact, Whitfield told journalism.co.za this week that senior reporter Murray Williams, who authored Wednesday’s front-page story, was put on this investigation six months ago.      

Whitfield says he got wind on 21 June that Smith had gone to the ANC to confess. Whitfield spent a day and half tracking down Smith and then he and Argus executive editor Gasant Abarder had lunch with Smith, during which he told them he wished to “unburden his soul”. Whitfield made the Independent’s lawyer available to  Smith, who was concerned about his own  legal liability. The attorney helped Smith with an affidavit, which was given to the NPA and that Smith hopes will get him indemnity from prosecution. 

The story was kept within a very close circle of senior Independent Newspapers people (the reporter, the lawyer and the head office in Johannesburg) right up until this Wednesday, the  day of publication. The 6am news conference (remember the Argus is an afternoon newspaper) was told on Wednesday. The story had been worked on separately and not in the subsroom.  And then an Argus  staff meeting was held at 8am on Wednesday at which Whitfield and Abarder unveiled the latest events and the stories that were to be published on that day.

“The affidavit was finally signed on Monday (28 June),” says Whitfield. “We kept it very, very tight and discussed it at great length: how we would do it; what we should do. What we ended up with was a product of a hell of a lot of consultation.
 “I think it was very important that it was us who got to the bottom of this and pursued it quite vigorously. There’s been doubt in our minds. It’s been a very difficult issue to deal with.

“Quite frankly, it’s a huge relief to have dealt with at least this aspect of the story, the central allegation that these guys were up to very serious mischief and there were breaches of our integrity. There are other allegations that are yet to be proved (for example, that came up in the M&G story.)  We are obviously going to pursue those as well.”
It seems though that the cloud hanging over the Argus’s political team has largely been lifted by the paper’s own hand. Whitfield says the paper’s political reporters had been snubbed by some politicians because of the long-standing allegations while there was unhappiness among staff as some were still close to Smith and Aranes.

“In terms of morale in the newsroom,” says Whitfield, “there was a cloud hanging over the paper. It’s not good for the people (at the Argus) to know that but they’re a quite a feisty bunch.”

* The "Backstory" series is exclusive to journalism.co.za.  Gill Moodie is a freelance journalist who is also responsible for the website http://www.grubstreet.co.za