Times axes Bullard over ‘racist’ column

CONTROVERSIAL Sunday Times columnist David Bullard has been axed for writing a “racist column”.

In his last offering of Out to Lunch, Bullard graphically detailed how Africa had “benefited” from colonialism, an argument that drew criticism from readers and social commentators.

“He wrote a racist column on Sunday. I had a conversation with him on Tuesday, I told him that what he wrote was unacceptable,” Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said last night. “It went against the values of this newspaper.

“He told me he believed what he had written. I took a decision as editor to discontinue his contract.”

Click here for the rest of this Business Day article.

NVDL: A few days ago I encountered David going up the escalator, and I made an odd remark (even for me). I asked him if he had any plans to leave the country, and if he had he could call it, "Out of Africa." I think he said he'd chucked his British passport (he may not have said this, but that is what I picked up), which confirmed a perception I had that he was essentially a South African through and through. After he got shot, he said, he said how touched he was by support from fellow South Africans, and time and again he has cited 'the people' as being South Africa's greatest asset.

Bullard also said on the radio this morning that the article was provided a few days before being published, and that his brief (during his tenure) was to be controversial.

Still, a 14 year run is not bad, and Bullard did end it all off with a third Out to Lunch book.