Daily Maverick apologises for publishing fake Vivian Reddy story

THE Daily Maverick has retracted and removed a deceptive article, and apologised to Symbion Power LLC and its CEO, Paul Hinks, after publishing a false story claiming the family of Durban businessman Vivian Reddy were part of a consortium that lost a case against Eskom.

In a letter published on Sunday by the Daily Maverick, the publication said its article dated and published on May 8, claiming that Reddy’s son had a relationship with Symbion and that they were being sued in a US court, was wholly incorrect and that the Daily Maverick apologises for the errors. “The article incorrectly stated that Symbion was being ‘sued’ in a US court. Daily Maverick wishes to clarify that those proceedings are a discovery application by a former business partner in the company’s Madagascar power plant project, Zouzar Bouka, with whom Symbion has a dispute. It is, in fact, Symbion that has ‘sued’ Bouka in a New York arbitration.

“More significantly, the article failed to report on Symbion’s replying affidavit’s refutation of Bouka’s allegations, which was filed in court before the publication of the article.

“In addition, we retract the statements and have determined that it was wholly incorrect to state that Symbion was once associated with the family of Durban businessman Vivian Reddy and was part of a consortium that recently lost a case against Eskom. It was not, and Symbion was not associated with Reddy.”

However, Reddy rubbished the publication stating that the Daily Maverick continuously threw his name and that of his family in the mud. “They have an agenda against me, and I will not tolerate their nonsense. This is not the first time they have published nonsensical stories dragging my family’s name and claiming we are involved in all sorts of things we are not even aware of.

“This is the third apology we have received from this publication, and we will not allow them to write fake news about us and later apologise. This shows their desperation to damage our reputation at all cost,” said Reddy.

Last year, Sorisha Naidoo, Reddy’s wife, complained to the Press Ombudsman that, “In the article headlined ‘Tarina Patel, Sorisha Naidoo and Nonkanyiso Conco – The Real Housewives of State Capture’, the publication intentionally misled and created an unwarranted negative perception of her, unfairly and incorrectly associated her with state capture; and that the article made a remark that was derogatory to both her and her husband, Vivian Reddy (insinuating that she had married him for his money), and added that the reportage has caused them reputational harm”.

The ombud ruled in favour of Naidoo, stating that the Daily Maverick had breached the press code and directed it to apologise for “unfairly implying that she had married Vivian Reddy for his money and for unnecessarily tarnishing her dignity and reputation in the process”.

Following the ruling, the Daily Maverick apologised to Naidoo for the implication and for the harm caused.