The Star has withdrawn its report claiming that SA President Kgalema Motlanthe was having an affair with a 24-year-old woman.
On January 26, 2009, this newspaper carried a story following up on an article in The Sunday Independent regarding an alleged relationship between President Kgalema Motlanthe and a 24-year-old woman.
The newspaper believed at the time that the information was credible, based on high-placed sources and an interview with the woman herself.
However, as was reported by The Sunday Independent on February 8, 2009, the woman in question has recanted her story in its entirety.
In the circumstances, we have no hesitation in retracting the original story in this regard and regret any distress occasioned to the President by its publication.
