Journalist Malcom Rees: How Johann van Loggerenberg got falsely labelled a police spy

South Africans who lived through the apartheid era are keenly aware that there are few accusations worse than being called a policy spy. Back in the 1980s it was a moniker that could easily cost your life. The best known case is probably the murder of Stompie Moeketsi, accused of being a police spy at the age of 14, by a member of Winnie Mandela's "Football Club” in 1989. In contemporary South Africa, it is still regarded as a disgrace to have served as an informer to the police in the former political dispensation because the police were the enforcers of racist legislation. Johann van Loggerenberg, an anti-corruption buster at the South African Revenue Services until 2015, has experienced the pain of the “police spy” label at the hands of The Sunday Times. One of its former journalists, Malcolm Rees, has apologised for the reputational damage and has started to explain how the false accusation made it into the pages of one of the country’s biggest print titles. But there are still more questions to be answered by the journalists working within the bosom of a big media company. And, although the Rogue Unit reports have been discredited, by late this week TimesLive was still carrying the 2014 piece, Love affair rocks SARS, that falsely labels Van Loggerenberg as a spy. - Jackie Cameron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices