The book ‘’The Lost Boys of Bird Island’’ was launched on 18 August 2018 by Media24’s Publishing division, NB Publishers, under the imprint “TAFELBERG” as non-fiction and a so-called shocking exposé. The publishing industry in South Africa stooped to a new, hitherto unseen low, when Media24 published a book with a fictional tale of the existence of a paedophile ring amongst former NP cabinet ministers, under the banner of non-fiction. The book set out to slander three prominent former South African ministers by labelling them as paedophiles – certainly one of the worst sexual transgressions known to man.
It was published by Tafelberg Publishers owned by Media24 Books with Eloise Wessels as CEO. The Editor: Non-Fiction was Maryna Lamprecht – which in turn is owned by Media24 (with Esmaré Weideman as CEO at that time) - which in turn is owned by NASPERS (with Koos Bekker as its Chairman). It would appear that not a single one of these Directors, CEO’s, Managers or Editors bothered to do any form of due-diligence to verify if the manuscript, as submitted by the co-authors Chris Steyn and Mark Minnie, were factually correct and indeed true.