The Cape of Good Hope SPCA wrongly implicated the Mitchell’s Plain Community Police Forum (CPF) chairperson last week when it published an article on its website that claimed a Mitchell’s Plain man, who was found guilty of animal abuse, is the chairperson of the CPF.
The article, which also appeared on the SPCA’s social media platforms and was released to the media, also named the wrong person, a Kyle van Niekerk, instead of the convicted Mitchell’s Plain man, Alan Thorne.
The Mitchell’s Plain Sub-District CPF Board issued a statement on the same day, in which it expressed concern about the reputational damage that the SPCA’s misinformed article could pose to the CPF chairperson and the CPF body as a whole.
"While we support the SPCA’s commitment to justice and acknowledge that the person involved was indeed convicted and sentenced, we must categorically clarify that the individual mentioned in the article is not the Mitchell’s Plain CPF chairperson.
“To the best of our knowledge, this person does not reside within the Mitchell’s Plain policing precinct and currently holds no position within the Mitchell’s Plain CPF.
“The Mitchell’s Plain Sub-District CPF Board is deeply concerned about the potential reputational harm this misinformation could cause to the current CPF chairperson, as well as to the CPF organisation as a whole,” the statement said.
Although the SPCA has since issued a correction, its website still carries a misleading headline, which reads “Breaking News: “Chairperson” of Mitchell’s Plain CPF found guilty of cruelty to animals“.
Asked how the SPCA got the convicted person's name wrong, Belinda Abraham, communications manager for the SPCA, said it was an administrative error with no ill intent.
“We take great pride in the accuracy of our reporting and we took immediate steps to correct it as soon as we were made aware of the error,” she said.
Responding to questions about the source of its initial claims that Mr Thorne was the Mitchell's Plain CPF chairperson, Ms Abraham said: “This is what the accused claimed to be and he proudly wore a CPF jacket to court. We had no reason to believe he was any other than he claimed to be.
“We have made our apologies and been in contact with a representative of the Mitchell’s Plain Sub-District Community Police Board and published an update to the article on our social media sites and circulated this to all our media contacts,” she said.
In an interview with the Plainsman on Sunday, Mr Thorne acknowledged his sentence but vehemently denied representing himself as the chairperson of the Mitchell’s Plain CPF.
“I never said that I was the Mitchell’s Plain CPF chairperson,” he said.
Mr Thorne, who used to serve as Lentegeur CPF sub-forum chairperson a few years ago, said he only mentioned his previous role in the CPF along with his other community involvements in court to demonstrate his service to the community.
The Mitchell’s Plain Sub-District Community Police Board confirmed Mr Thorne’s former involvement in the Lentegeur CPF.
“Approximately four years ago, this individual served as a sub-forum chairperson within the Lentegeur policing precinct but has since had no association with the Lentegeur CPF,” it said in its statement.