GARETH VAN ONSELEN: The apparent plagiarism of Yonela Diko
The Daily Maverick’s response to this evidence is deeply disturbing and problematic, and judging by its editing of the first column, it does not understand the problem
Yonela Diko is the ANC’s spokesperson in the Western Cape and a weekly columnist for the Daily Maverick. On inspection, many of his columns appear to have large sections lifted wholesale from various online sources, without reference, attribution, hyperlinks to the relevant work or, most importantly, quotation marks. On the evidence, then, he would seem a serial plagiarist. This is an analysis of the problem. To make the case, this analysis will focus primarily on four columns, each of which have borrowed at great length from a single source, without crediting them, often word-for-word. Examples, however, are not limited to these four case studies, there are many others, which will be briefly set out towards the end. Case study 1 Column: Is the Democratic Alliance facing extinction?, published on June 4. Unaccredited work: 4 lessons from extinct political parties, published on October 15 2013The column on the left represents Yonela Diko’s original text, the column on the right the w...
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