A Full Retraction and Unreserved Apology to Captain Dave Mlotha

The Nyasa Times hereby issues a full and unreserved apology to Captain Dave Mlotha for the allegations contained in the published articles titled, “Retraction and Apology to Captain Hastings Jailosi and Malawi Civil Aviation Authority (MCAA) Over a Misleading Article We Published” which followed an earlier article titled “Civil Aviation Authority under fire over allegedly unqualified Pilot Checker.” These articles were authored by a seasoned journalist who has been a correspondent to Nyasa Times for over 10 years and trust by our editorial team lapsed our judgement to fact-check and fill the gaps by conducting further inquiries.

The central claims of the article—that Captain Hastings Laison Jailosi lacks the requisite qualifications for his role as Flight Safety Manager at the Malawi Civil Aviation Authority (MCAA)—were factually inaccurate and should not have been published, and we accordingly apologised to him and the MCAA in our subsequent article.

In our apology to Captain Jailosi and MCAA, we made another error by bringing in Captain Dave Mlotha who works in Nigeria as the source of the disparaging and defamatory information and referred to issues surrounding the renewal of his Pilot license as the bone of contention. We hereby categorically state that Captain Mlotha was NOT the source of the misinformation about Captain Jailosi and the MCAA, let alone the alleged whistleblower.

We hereby extend our profound and unconditional apology to Captain Dave Mlotha for this gross misinformation by our editorial team. Captain Mlotha never spoke to or contacted anyone at Nyasa Times with regard to Captain Jailosi or the MCAA. We have now found out that a certain individual who has a personal vendetta against Captain Mlotha, about whom Captain Mlotha has no knowledge of, decided to use our publication to discredit and mud-sling him for personal reasons or to settle scores. It is unfortunate that this individual decided to choose Nyasa Times as a module to settle personal scores with Captain Mlotha and we unfortunately fell prey. We sincerely regret the damage and distress caused to Captain Mlotha, his family and/or any other person affected by this error on our part. Captain Mlotha had nothing to do with the article we published about Captain Jailosi and the MCAA.

It was never our intention to make Captain Mlotha the subject of public vilification. For our role in creating this situation and for the turmoil it has caused him, we are truly sorry and sincerely apologise.

The ultimate responsibility for verifying and publishing information rests solely with the news organisation, not its sources. In this instance, our enthusiasm to break a story overshadowed the prudence and rigorous verification our standards demand. This failure inadvertently exposed Captain Mlotha, Captain Jailosi and MCAA to severe personal backlash.

This episode represents a serious failure in our editorial process and a breach of the trust our readers place in us. A news organisation must be a careful steward of the stories it tells and of the lives it touches. We failed in that duty.

To that end, we are undertaking an immediate and thorough review of our editorial and source-vetting protocols to ensure that such a significant lapse in journalistic oversight does not happen again.

We understand that rebuilding trust requires more than words. This public apology and retraction is the first step. We are committed to demonstrating our renewed dedication to journalism that is truthful, accurate, and fair.