'Dem bones, dem bones, dem lion bones...'

(Image: GCIS)

For more:

• Mail & Guardian: Lion bones come back to haunt Number One... As if he doesn't have enough on his plate already... Guptagate, Nkandlagate... and now this (though he's not directly involved)...

  Just nine months ago the Airports Company of SA (ACSA) embarrassed itself when it demanded that online activist network Avaaz posters against the trade in lion bone be removed from OR Tambo airport. Subsequently, the company claimed that there had been complaints from the public, but now it seems that we mere mortals weren't involved... It was actually a member of ACSA's management team who decided the posters had to go; apparently over concerns that they might offend "Number One".

  In fact, news24 reports that "Kate Hofmeyr, attorney for Acsa, said in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg yesterday, that an Acsa statement earlier in the dispute that there had been complaints from the public was 'factually incorrect'.

  "She confirmed there had been no complaints from the public."

  Interesting term that... "factually incorrect"... don't you think?

  When I was at school, a million years ago, me telling my teacher that I had left my homework at home would have had him telling me, rather forcefully, and perhaps with some inflammation of my behind, that I had told him "a whopping terminological inexactitude". He would most certainly not have told me that what I had claimed was "factually incorrect"...he would have told me I was a fibber - and not in a nice way!

• BD Live: Times Media hits back at Sekunjalo criticism over Independent funding issues... All we want is a little transparency ... actually, make that a lot... There is much speculation around who's who in the zoo when it comes to the Sekunjalo group's buyout of INMSA, in which Survé's group is playing a leading role. He, however, has been somewhat cagey about who else is involved, citing confidentiality issues, so it's not unnatural that informed observers such as Anton Harber want Survé to be more accommodating in providing detail.

  As BD Live reports, "Rhodes University journalism professor Jane Duncan told Business Day on Sunday that the main antidote for the 'speculation' around the acquisition by Mr Survé was complete transparency and that waiting until next month could be too late."

• BDF Live: Kirsh family sells stake in FoneWorx to Caxton... And on a much quieter note... Primedia owner, the Kirsh family, has sold its shares in AltX-listed telecommunications company FoneWorx to Caxton.