Publisher backtracks over damning Apartheid-era book

29 Avril 2020

Cape Town, South Africa, April 29 (Infosplusgabon) – South African media giant Media24 on Wednesday apologised to Apartheid-era Finance Minister Barend du Plessis who was implicated in a best-selling book which accused him and two other senior Cabinet members of alleged paedophilia in the 1970s and 1980s.

The company has also ordered the complete withdrawal of The Lost Boys of Bird Island and offered a US$162,000 settlement.

The other politicians implicated in the damning expose are former Defence Minister Magnus Malan and Environment Minister John Wiley, who have both died.

Media24 CEO Ishmet Davidson has extended “an unreserved and sincere apology” to Du Plessis and his family as well as to the families of Malan and Wiley for the harm caused by the allegations contained in the book.

The book, which was co-written by Chris Steyn and Mark Minnie, who took his own life in 2018, implicated the three men in a paedophilia ring that that saw impoverished children flown in Air Force helicopters to Bird Island off Port Elizabeth.

Lawyers representing Du Plessis last month labelled the book “a web of lies” and vowed to seek damages.

“The inescapable fact is that 24 years since the first reports, featuring the same sleazy allegations appeared in some of Media24's most prominent publications, and 32 years since the alleged acts would have occurred, there has been no evidence whatsoever from any of many investigations that implicates any of the ministers in the despicable crimes alleged in the book,” Johan Victor Attorneys said in a statement.

They further slammed the “lack of proper and substantive research by the authors and the publisher”.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/RDF/GABON2020

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