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Ruling (Leave to Appeal)

Jan Hendrik Venter vs The Citizen

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BEFORE THE APPEALS COMMITTEE OF THE PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA

In the matter between:

Jan Hendrik Venter                                                                          Applicant

and

The Citizen                                                                                        Respondent

Matter No: 000458/01/2026

DECISION ON AN APPLICATIONN FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL

  1. Mr Jan Hendrik Venter (applicant) asks for leave to appeal a Ruling by the Deputy Press Ombud issued on 26 January 2026 in respect of a complaint he filed against The Citizen (respondent). The Ruling refused him condonation for the late filing of his complaint. The complaint was filed six years after the article complained about was published, which was on 15 August 2019.
  2. Initially, the Public Advocate refused to accept the complaint on the ground that it was filed some seven years out of time – actually it was six years after. The applicant took the matter to the Deputy Press Ombud, who turned down the application for condonation. There is no need to go into the complaint or the article; what is required is to determine the condonation application given the long period that elapsed after the publication of the article.
  3. The applicant says that he could not file his complaint in 2019 when the article was published as he had to wait for the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions whether the criminal matter concerned should be prosecuted. He says the article, which concerned him, was inaccurate. There is no basis why he had to wait for the outcome of the criminal case. As the Public Advocate and the Deputy Press Ombud point out, he knew what the article said about him and how he felt about it, but did nothing. The following from the Ruling adequately disposes of the matter:

“By his own account, (the applicant) was informed in May 2021 of the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to decline prosecution …. Yet even then – nearly two years after The Citizen published its article – he did not submit a complaint about the article. …. In any event, it is not clear why it was essential for (the applicant) to wait for official notification about the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions before he felt he was in a position to lodge a complaint with the Press Council”.

  1. Sometimes the merits of the case can swerve the court towards condonation. But in the present case I hold that the application for condonation should fail as the applicant is grossly out of time and without any reasonable explanation; holding otherwise would bring the process into disrepute. The application is therefore dismissed.

Dated this 22nd day of February 2026

Judge B M Ngoepe (Retired Judge President) Chair, Appeals Panel

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