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“News24 Found Guilty of Spreading Disinformation”
https://youtu.be/Fr5mgq9_dBo
Premiered Aug 4, 2025 SOUTH AFRICA
News24 and Adriaan Basson have been found guilty by the Press Ombudsman of spreading mis/disinformation. That's right, their dedicated Disinformation Desk was found guilty of doing exactly what they proclaim to fight against. You truly can't make this up!
“Saai vs News24”- News24 found guilty of spreading misinformation concerning the reporting of Akkerland farm expropriation without compensation
https://presscouncil.org.za/2025/08/04/saai-vs-news24/
https://saai.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Finding-Complaint-32141-SAAI-v-News24-FINAL.pdf
4 August 2025
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In the so-called “post-truth era”, objective facts matter more than ever before. The news media cannot afford to pander to the idea of “alternative facts”.
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The facts that both parties formally agreed to in this matter, are the following:
• Akkerland was in a dispute on two fronts over several years preceding
2018: There was a pending land claim and Coal of Africa (or a subsidiary) held prospecting rights over mineral resources on the farms. Coal of Africa and Akkerland were involved in litigation about access to the farms to exercise the mine’s prospecting rights.
• The department of rural development and land reform negotiated with
Akkerland for the sale of the farms to settle a land claim – i.e. to buy it from Akkerland in order to provide the farms to land claimants. The government initially offered R17m and finally R20.7m to purchase the farm. Akkerland was of the view that its farms were worth R200m and did not agree to the sale.
• –When no agreement could be reached, the Minister of Rural
Development and Land Reform invoked section 42E of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 to expropriate the farms. In terms of that section, the provisions of the1975 Expropriation Act (now repealed) would be applicable to the expropriation process.–
• An expropriation notice was delivered to Akkerland, setting the date of 4 April 2018 as the date of expropriation and to hand over keys to the state.
• From that date, 4 April 2018, the ownership of the farms vested in the State.
• In terms of the 1975 Expropriation Act, the onus was on the ex-landowner to challenge either the expropriation or the compensation amount. This implies the need for great financial resources to litigate against the state.
• Akkerland Boerdery rushed off to the Land Claims Court. They sought an urgent interdict against the government not to be evicted. The urgent interdict was granted and would remain in place until finalisation of a review application which was instituted simultaneously but would only be considered by the court at a later stage.
• The review application became settled between the parties a few months later. The Land Claims Court made the settlement an order of court on 12 September 2018, which recorded:
“a. The (Minister) withdraws the Notice of Expropriation dated 19 March 2018 with immediate effect.
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It is declared that ownership of the Farm Lukin 643 MS and the Farm Salaita 188 MT reverts to (Akkerland) with immediate effect.
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The publication is directed to:
• Update the current article to correct the statement that Akkerland Boerdery was never expropriated and to include the context of the Land Claims Court orders of April and September 2018.
• Publish an apology to its readers for omitting material context and for any confusion this may have caused its readers.
• The update/apology is to reference this complaint, contain the logo of the Press Council, and link to the full ruling.