Sunday World’s owners once offered reporters a commission for bringing in advertising. In May 2023, Fundudzi Media sent a letter to all staff introducing a 15% “incentive” on new business they generated. “This incentive scheme is being introduced to encourage and reward employees who bring in new business for print and digital advertising,” the letter stated.
The letter highlighted a long-standing principle in journalism: a strict separation between editorial work and advertising. For example, The New York Times ethics handbook states that journalists should not do their work on behalf of advertisers and must avoid any conflicts of interest or even the appearance of one.
However, financial pressure in modern newsrooms has weakened this separation in many media organisations worldwide. In smaller community publications, such separation is often difficult to maintain due to limited staff. But Sunday World is not a small community newspaper.
In fact, the blurring of editorial and advertising lines began long before the 2023 letter. GroundUp previously reported that the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) allocated a disproportionate share of its advertising budget to Sunday World between 2019 and 2022. During this period, the newspaper published favorable coverage of the NLC while also attacking a GroundUp journalist investigating corruption at the commission.
Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa expanded the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) mandate to include procurement matters at the NLC. This allowed the SIU to examine the advertising relationship between the NLC and Sunday World. At the time the 2023 letter was issued, the acting editor of Sunday World was Ngwako Malatji. His family is now linked to a matter under investigation by the SIU.
Before becoming acting editor, Malatji’s wife and father served as directors of a non-profit organisation, Todi Media Development Foundation. In 2018, the organisation received a R1.5 million lottery grant under questionable circumstances. Of this amount, R550,000 was paid to Unscripted Communication, a company owned by Makhudu Sefara, to organise a media workshop.
Sefara later became editor of Sunday World in 2019, while Malatji became acting editor in 2023. A further R900,000 from the grant was used to help purchase a house in the south of Johannesburg, registered in Malatji and his wife’s names. Sefara left Sunday World in 2020 to join TimesLIVE and later became editor of the Sunday Times.
Todi Media has since admitted to “regrettable mistakes and missteps” and repaid the R1.5 million to the SIU. Following the investigation, Sefara stepped aside as editor of the Sunday Times and chair of the South African National Editors’ Forum. Malatji did not respond to questions. Sefara also did not respond and instead questioned the integrity of the journalist who contacted him. Sunday World’s current owner also did not respond to inquiries.
Former editor Wally Mbhele said that shortly after joining the paper in February 2021, he discovered that some reporters were being paid advertising commissions. “I believed it could compromise their independence and open up the possibility for corruption. As an experienced editor, I could not tolerate that,” he said. He added that he worked with HR and the advertising department to introduce a policy preventing journalists from receiving advertising commissions.
Mbhele resigned in December 2022. Although he offered to serve a three-month notice period, he was told “not to come back.” When shown the 2023 commission letter, Mbhele said he was shocked. “That it happened after I left is beyond my comprehension. But I always suspected that there were dodgy things going on with some senior reporters,” he said. Malatji became acting editor in early 2023 after Mbhele’s departure and held the role when the commission letter was sent. He resigned last year following the sale of the newspaper.
