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Martin Welz is a South African journalist and the editor of Noseweek magazine [1] known for his investigative work on controversial issues including government and corporate corruption.
Martin Sylvester Welz was born on 19 October, 1945 in Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa. He was the fourth son of artist Jean Welz, born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1900. His mother, Inger Marie Welz (née Christensen), was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1908.
A report by Welz while he was working for the Sunday Times from 1977–1981 saw an R180-million defamation claim instituted against himself and the paper by Lebanese businessman Salim el Hajj. El Hajj had been accused by Welz of a series of frauds in the then-black "homelands." El Hajj fled the country before the case got to court. Welz also worked on South Africa's "Muldergate" information scandal and helped expose wrongdoing by apartheid-era cabinet ministers, among other things, revealing that both Minister of Manpower and Energy Fanie Botha and State President Nico Diederichs were secretly bankrupt while in office.
In 1981–82, Welz was appointed Parliamentary correspondent for Sunday Express, Johannesburg. While at the Express, he won the Stellenbosch farmers' Winery Award in 1983 for a series exposing the corrupt pharmaceutical empire established by businessmen; Isaac Kay and David Tabatznik. [2]
Noseweek was founded in Cape Town, South Africa, in June 1993. It contains a minimal amount of advertising and mainly relies on sales. [3]
The first lawsuit against the magazine was brought in 1994 by Dr. Robert Milton Hall, an American tax refugee and millionaire dentist living in Stellenbosch, Western Cape. The trial was in 1996 in the Cape High Court before Judge Johann Conradie. Noseweek had, among other things, pointed out Dr. Hall's fraudulent claims to be the "inventor of modern-day dentistry," as well as his ongoing foreign exchange and tax contraventions.[ citation needed ]
The magazine was represented by a legal team, while Welz represented himself. Noseweek and Welz won the case. Judge Johann Conradie presided and in his judgment found that Dr. Hall had, "... sued not to salvage his reputation but to sustain a colossal fraud." [4] This litigation put the magazine on ice for approximately two years and nearly bankrupted it. [4] It was later relaunched. Thanks to the voluntary contributions of scores of its loyal readers.
In 2007, Welz represented himself in a court action brought by the FirstRand group to prevent Noseweek from publishing a list of FirstRand clients allegedly involved in dubious[ clarification needed ] offshore investment scheme. The action was dismissed with costs. [5]
Cape Town businesswoman, Inge Peacock, sued Noseweek and Martin Welz in March, 2012. [6] Judge Andre Le Grange of the Cape High Court dismissed Peacock's case with costs, but stated that the plaintiff may pursue damages for defamation against Noseweek. [7] The resulting publicity created a "Streisand effect" after the mainstream press picked up the story.
In 2008, Welz reported that a ship due to dock in Durban harbour carried a shipment of Chinese weapons bound for Zimbabwe. [8] News of the $1.245 million, 77-ton shipment came via what Welz described as "a whistleblower of conscience," who supplied Noseweek with a commercial invoice, bill of lading and packing list for the shipment. [9]
Stellenbosch University (SU) (Afrikaans: Universiteit Stellenbosch, Xhosa: iYunivesithi yaseStellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Saharan Africa, which received full university status in 1918. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africa's first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999.
Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province.
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Daily Maverick is an independent, South African, English language, online news publication and weekly print newspaper, with offices in the country's two largest cities by population: Cape Town and Johannesburg.
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Brackenfell is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, situated on the N1 about 30 km north-east of Cape Town and 35 km south-west of Paarl.
Allister Haddon Sparks was a South African writer, journalist, and political commentator. He was the editor of The Rand Daily Mail when it broke Muldergate, the story of how the apartheid government secretly funded information projects.
George Claassen is a South African journalist who was the head of department of journalism at Pretoria Technikon and Stellenbosch University. Claassen was the first academic in the field of journalism to develop a course in science and technology journalism and can rightly be called the "father of science communication in Africa"
Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa better known as Nat Nakasa was a South African journalist and short story writer.
Mandlakayise John Hlophe is a South African jurist and politician, currently serving as the Deputy President of uMkhonto weSizwe and the Leader of the Opposition of South Africa. He was the Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa from May 2000 until March 2024, when he was impeached. He was the first South African judge to be impeached under the post-apartheid Constitution.
Noseweek is a South African tabloid published by Chaucer Publications that has appeared monthly since June 1993. It is best known for regular legal action against it, such as a failed bid at interdiction by banking group FirstRand and defamation actions by judge Fikile Bam and former public protector Selby Baqwa.
Leonard Mzilikazi Ndzukula, better known as Mzilikazi wa Afrika, is a South African investigative journalist who worked for the Sunday Times newspaper. He resigned with a colleague, Stephan Hofstatter, in October 2018 after the newspaper publicly apologised for a number of powerful stories they wrote between 2011 and 2016 which were found to be not reflecting an honest truth. He is a multi-award winning journalist, a music producer and also the author of Nothing Left to Steal.
Taco Esgo Kuiper was an investigative journalist and wealthy publisher in South Africa. He was best known in the late 20th century as owner and publishing editor of The Investors’ Guide in Johannesburg, for undertaking and encouraging investigative journalism in South Africa, and for funding the annual Taco Kuiper Award in investigative journalism.
Selby Alan Masibonge Baqwa is a South African lawyer and judge who served as the Public Protector of South Africa from 1995 to 2002. He was appointed as a judge of the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa in May 2012. In 2013, he was nominated unsuccessfully for elevation to the Constitutional Court, where he was an acting judge in 2023.
AfriForum is a South African non-governmental organisation which mainly focuses on the interests of Afrikaners, a subgroup of the country's white population. AfriForum has been described as a "white nationalist, alt-right, and Afrikaner nationalist group", though this description is rejected by the organisation's leadership, who refer to themselves as a civil rights group.
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GroundUp is a South African-based not-for-profit news agency. It publishes most content under a creative commons license and is known for its focus on public interest stories within vulnerable communities with a "bottom-up" style of reporting. Their content is regularly reprinted and featured in other South African news publications such as the Daily Maverick, News24, and Mail & Guardian. The publication was founded in 2012 by Nathan Geffen, a former Treatment Action Campaign member.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is a South African-based non-profit membership organisation for editors, senior journalists and journalism trainers. The SANEF supports South African journalism through a number of activities ranging from public statements supporting media freedom, running training programs for journalists, writing policy submissions to government, to sponsoring and conducting research into the state of the media in South Africa. The SANEF runs the annual Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity that recognises media practitioners that have improved South African journalism.
Mandy Rossouw was a South African journalist, political analyst and author. She worked in a variety of positions, including as an international correspondent for Media24 and the deputy politics editor at Mail & Guardian. Rossouw was also known for breaking the Nkandlagate story.
Stephen Patrick "Sam" Sole is a South African investigative journalist. He is the co-founder and managing director of the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Before the centre became independent in April 2016, he was a journalist for the Mail & Guardian. Since 2003 he has won both the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award and the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism on multiple occasions.
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