CORRECTIONS

We also reported that Nzimande “has been known to have up to four luxury vehicles in his garage”. Nzimande says his property cannot accommodate four cars and that he only drives the black Jeep Grand Cherokee as reported.

We retract and apologise for these reports. We also apologise for our failure to contact Nzimande ahead of publication about the questions of lifestyle.

We note that our information on his salary was calculated as follows: Nzimande earns a total package of a parliamentary portfolio committee chairperson, which ranges between R625 476 and R683 973 per annum; plus a R250 000 car allowance.

April 26 2007

In “Why the Kruger’s rivers ran dry” (April 13), the sentence “Department spokesperson Hilgard Matthews said that the Water Act was not being enforced ...” should have read: “Department spokesperson Hilgard Matthews denied that the Water Act was not being enforced, adding that it was incorrect to say Kruger’s rivers had dried up.” We regret the error. April 12 2007

In "LeisureNet convicts agree to R6m forfeiture" (April 11), it was reported that former LeisureNet joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rod Mitchell had agreed to a forfeiture order on the R6-million they each received in an underhanded gym deal. This is incorrect. Their legal team in fact indicated they had no objection to a high court order that a forfeiture inquiry be instituted in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, and that the inquiry take place in September. We apologise for the error.

April 5 2007

In the article "Walter Sisulu University fights for survival" (March 23), we reported that student debt at about R180-million. The university has since informed us that this figure is out of date and that the debt now stands at R102-million.

March 30 2007

In its final opinion on the Ronnie Kasrils matter, the South African Human Rights Commission said the South African Jewish Report had indicated that the majority of its readers took the view that Kasrils’s remarks were hate speech, but in the edited opinion the commission approved for publication (Israel: not ‘hate speech’ but free speech, March 16), this conclusion was attributed to the South African Jewish Report.

March 14 2007

In the article “Construction worker digs up R3,2m treasure” (March 12), the amount of 50-million yen was wrongly converted to R368-million. It is, in fact, about R3,2-million. We regret the error.

February 23 to March 1 2007

In the article “Too many cooks ...” (February 9), we mistakenly refered to Joseph Made, the former Zimbabwean minister of agriculture, as Stan Made. We regret the error.

February 26 2007

In the review "New Proton punches way above its class", the Proton was wrongly identified as being a Korean car. It is, in fact, Malaysian.

February 9 2007

In “DBSA’s skills drive boosts infrastructure” (February 2), the M&G; reported that Jeanette Nhlapo is the CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. She is, in fact, the chief operating officer of the Development Fund and executive manager: capacity development and deployment. In the same article, the treasury’s Lungisa Fuzile is incorrectly named as Nungisa Fuzime. We regret the errors.

January 22 2007

The article "EU eyes emissions limits for new cars" (January 21 2007) stated: "European, Japanese and Korean automakers have failed to meet a voluntary target to cut average emissions for new cars sold in Europe to 25% of 1995 levels."

It should have read: "European, Japanese and Korean automakers have failed to meet a voluntary target to achieve a reduction in average emissions for new cars sold in Europe of 25% from 1995 levels." We apologise for the error.

January 11 2007

The article "Police chief urges Mugabe to fix economy" (January 11 2007) stated: "Mandipaka said Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party have come to heavily rely on state security forces to not only keep public discontent in check in the face of growing economic hardships, but to also carry out government duties and functions that are normally performed by civilian authorities."

The quote was wrongly attributed to Mandipaka. The statement had, in fact, been made by various analysts, according to independent news service ZimOnline, which supplied the article. We removed this paragraph and apologise for the error.

December 15 2006

In an article on uranium prices, the name of UraMin, a uranium mining company, was incorrectly referred to as UraMinco. We apologise for the error.

July 28 2006

On the front page of its July 28 edition, the Mail & Guardian stated that the Catholic Church is investigating 24 priests over suspected paedophilia. As the article of the edition makes clear, this should have read “24 incidents”. We apologise for the error.

December 2 2005

In its December 2 edition, the Mail & Guardian reported that former deputy president Jacob Zuma met senior members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party at his Nkandla residence in KwaZulu-Natal on November 27.

This week, Zuma released a statement denying any “confessions” had been made to the union and communist leaders, adding that two of the three leaders had never been to Nkandla.

The M&G; based its original report on a senior, well-placed source, and attempted to cross-check it before publication. Our judgement was that, given the source’s seniority and history with the newspaper, the information provided was reliable.

Through its own further inquiries, the M&G; now believes that the date and venue of the meeting were not accurately reported. We apologise for the inaccuracy and will in future check all details with at least three sources before printing.

However, the M&G; stands by the essence of its report -- that unionists and the SACP leadership were briefed and that Zuma said he had had consensual sex with the alleged rape victim.

Apology
The South African Communist Party’s general secretary Blade Nzimande has pointed out that he was not at an Nkandla meeting with former deputy president Jacob Zuma on November 27 2005. He was in Johannesburg at a SACP central committee meeting in the day and then attended a function at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the evening.

The M&G; apologises to Nzimande for the article “There was sex but no rape, Zuma tells unionists”, which stated that he was at Nkandla on November 27 where the former deputy president took him into confidence. Nzimande has also objected to the “Editor’s Note” of December 9 (“All sound, no fury”) for implying that he lied. No such implication was intended. The M&G; has put in place steps to ensure that its reporting of facts like venues and dates are accurate and that its reporting of the succession battle is watertight.

December 2 to 8 2005

The article "There was sex but no rape, Zuma tells unionists" wrongly refers to Jacob Zuma as "the country's former president". He is South Africa's former deputy president and the current deputy president of the African National Congress.

October 21 to 27 2005

The reference to Down's syndrome patients in an article by regular Fraser's Razor columnist Ian Fraser, entitled "I read the news today, oh boy" (September 7), was regrettable and the phrase was withdrawn a day after the column was published. The Mail & Guardian Online apologises unreservedly for any offence caused by the remark.

In a sidebar accompanying “Kasrils lashes out at NIA boss” (October 14) we listed Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence under institutions in support of dismantling the Scorpions.

African National Congress MP Luwellyn Landers has since pointed out that the committee did not express any view in its submission to the Khampepe commission on the relocation of the Scorpions, but only raised concerns with regard to the oversight over the unit’s intelligence activities.

In the article “Arendse: I’m being used”, about racism allegations against John Hlophe, in the same edition, we said Dene Smuts is the Democratic Alliance’s justice spokesperson. The position is, in fact, held by Sheila Camerer.

We apologise for the errors.

September 2 to 9 2005

Kebble's fishy deal goes vrot

On the advice of its ombud, Franz Krüger, the Mail & Guardian would like to clarify and correct some aspects of last week’s report “Kebble’s fishy deal goes vrot”. The blurb said that the bid by the South Atlantic Fishing Company (Safco) had no boats when it applied for a series of licences to hunt tuna and swordfish off the West Coast. The paper accepts that Safco owned six boats, and that the blurb erred in this respect. However, the applications were made in the name of joint ventures between Safco and local communities, not in its own name. Government rules prevent the use of these boats under the licences issued, and the company has now been forced to fish out of the Namibian port of Luderitz while negotiating with Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) to be allowed to use the boats in South African waters.

In addition, several of the licences were granted on the basis of a signed quote with boatbuilders Tallies Marine, while MCM rules say applicants must own or “have guaranteed access” to a boat. While Safco construes these as firm orders, the boatbuilders say no order has been placed and the company itself confirms that the boats will only be built when the licencing difficulties have been resolved. The statement that there were no boats was too bald, and these complexities should have been clarified.

The blurb’s statement that the venture had no track record was not supported by the story. The paper accepts that various people involved in the venture have extensive experience in fishing.

The company has also denied local claims that it has failed to pay some Port Nolloth community members for work done.