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Staff set to sue editor after row Shanaaz Eggington, Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 19 January 2014 City Press editor Ferial Haffajee has apologised to the journalists she accused of racism and dividing her newsroom last year. But the apology might not be enough - four journalists, from the original six City Press employees she called "racist", still intend to take her to court for defamation. The journalists sought legal advice after receiving a letter in which Haffajee made her apology. Haffajee declined to comment on Friday. Attorney David Swartz said he was acting on behalf of journalists Denvor de Wee, Khanyiso Tshwaku, Mawande Mvumvu and Muntu Vilakazi. The other two, Percy Mabandu and Athandiwe Saba, did not pursue the matter. Swartz said legal action against Haffajee would be instituted in the next week or two. A City Press insider said the journalists had insisted on a public apology during an internal grievance process, but instead received letters of apology from Haffajee at the end of last year. In the uniform letter received by each of the journalists, Haffajee apologised for calling them racist and divisive and for giving them an ultimatum about their continued employment. She admitted to an error of judgment and to not displaying good leadership. The row between Haffajee and some of her staff burst into public view last year when she tweeted: "I don't tolerate white racists, so what makes black racists any different? Today, I drew a line in that sand. Two sides: one awful coin." In a subsequent e-mail to staff, she again accused the journalists of racism and gave them a week to decide whether they still wanted to work for the newspaper. The journalists had accused the paper of taking a hard line on stories involving President Jacob Zuma, but not the Democratic Alliance. They also accused Haffajee of failing to appoint a senior black news editor to tell stories from "a black perspective". Both parties lodged internal grievances, but Haffajee retracted hers shortly afterwards. Transcribed -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
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