The long-delayed racism case brought by reporters against their then boss Ferial Haffajee is due in court next week. A report in The Star says the four former City Press reporters – Mawande Mvumvu, Khanyiso Tshwaku, Muntu Vilakazi and Denvor de Wee – brought the case against then editor Haffajee in January 2014, accusing her of defaming them by calling them racists.

They were all working at the newspaper at the time, but have all since left. The four claimed R3m each from Haffajee and Media24, which owns City Press. The matter is set down for a hearing in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) on 18 August. Nothing came of settlement attempts, so ‘at this stage, it looks like it is going ahead,’ said Etienne van der Merwe, the plaintiffs' lawyer. The dispute goes back to October 2013.

The four claim in court papers that, at a City Press meeting, Haffajee called them racists and ‘culturally superior’, and accused them of ‘causing divisiveness’. They accused her of intentionally defaming them.

They say Haffajee subsequently put up a notice saying, ‘No racists allowed’, which was apparently aimed at them. Haffajee denied defamation. In court papers she says that she had apologised to them on three occasions for ‘having individualised her criticism’ of them. She also repeated her apology, and said any impairment to their dignity had been restored by the apologies.

Full report in The Star