Accusations of plagiarism have been levelled at the chief executive of publishing house Mafube, write Dominic Mahlangu and Charles Molele in the Sunday Times.
Siphokazi Sowazi, chief executive of Mafube Publishing, owners of Enterprise magazine, has plagiarised about six of her editorial columns, passing them off as her own work.
Documents in possession of the Sunday Times show that Sowazi lifted the entire column of David Cohen, an executive director of US-based company Techstars, for her February 2008 Biz Tips column.
In the column, titled “How to get great mentorsâ€ÂÂ, Sowazi lifted word-for-word from Cohen’s article titled “Find and engage great mentorsâ€ÂÂ. She even lifted subtitles.
Again, in her March column, Sowazi lifted an entire article written by Matt Evans in 2000, on excellence in financial management.
The incident, which is said to have embarrassed senior staff members at the magazine, comes hot on the heels of the resignation of its editor in chief Vusi Mona this week.
Mona, who had joined Enterprise magazine in May, said he had to resign after a fallout with Sowazi regarding her editorial interference.
Mona said he later discovered that her articles were plagiarised.
He said he had suspicions about the flawless articles Sowazi had submitted to him while he was in charge of editorial.
“The red lights flickered and I instituted an investigation. What emerged was a shocking level of plagiarism."
When contacted about the plagiarism allegations made against her, Sowazi pleaded ignorance, saying the matter had not been brought to her attention.
Click here to read the full report, posted on the Sunday Times website.ÂÂÂ
