Johannesburg - The Daily Maverick has retracted a report which implicated two South Africans in alleged Al-Qaeda related activities, because of "inaccuracies".
"After an exhaustive internal process, we now can acknowledge that there were inaccuracies in relation to Farhad and Junaid Dockrat in the article and we wish to set the record straight," it said in an apology posted on its website.
"We acknowledge that we are not in possession of evidence to show that Farhad Dockrat or Junaid Dockrat are linked to Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organisation."
The website also had no evidence that Farhad was hiding on the farm Greylock, in the Klein Karoo, or in Tsitsikamma, for the purposes of establishing terrorist training camps, or that they were conducting any illegal activities.
The Daily Maverick said its article had suggested these links, and that there was a strong Al-Qaeda presence in South Africa.
"We unequivocally and unconditionally apologise to Farhad and Junaid Dockrat and the Muslim community of South Africa and retract this allegation," it said.
"We regret the inconvenience and distress it has caused to Farhad, Junaid and the Dockrat family."
It said that in the interests of "good and ethical investigative journalism" it had agreed to remove the article from its website.
The Daily Maverick reported in May that the police's crimes against the state unit and the State Security Agency (SSA) had monitored the training of Al-Qaeda "terrorists" in South Africa without taking action.
The Daily Maverick reported in the initial article that, "at the centre of this alleged terrorist network are several members of the well-known and influential Dockrat family".
It reported that Farhad and Junaid Dockrat's names had been forwarded to the United Nations' Security Council's Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctions committee for designation, but that South Africa put an indefinite hold on the designation process.
According to the online publication, three months after they were put on a US "terrorist list" in 2007, the Dockrats moved their operation from Pretoria to Greylock.
There was a court dispute about a communal water line, and the Dockrats later bought a 70 percent share of the developing Tsitsikamma Golf Estate.
The Daily Maverick said in its apology that information that the US Treasury had named Farhad and Junaid Dockrat on its list of people associated with terrorism, and that they were placed on the US sanctions list were correct.
However, it had been wrong to report that Farhad had lost a court case regarding water rights on his Greylock farm.
"Although some farmers in the area told us that the dispute was resolved in their favour, we accept that this was not the case and that the opposite was true."
The Daily Maverick's editor Branko Brkic said in a post on the website that he was "personally responsible for this failure" and that the online publication had "stumbled" on the story.
"Going through an internal investigation and the realisation that one was wrong is an experience I don't particularly wish to repeat in this life," he said.
"But as humbling as this process is, it has reaffirmed to me what is most important: our readers and the truth."
De Wet Potgieter, who wrote the report, said in a post that he had been under pressure from some of his sources to publish his findings.
He acknowledged that he could have been "manipulated" by his sources.
"As an investigative journalist I have a duty to inform the public and believe the truth needs to be told," he said.
"I had no ulterior motives and am convinced that once the whole story has been understood, a clearer picture will emerge."
The Media Review Network welcomed the apology, but said the report represented journalism which "creates an incalculable damage that is difficult to undo".
"The Media Review Network commends the Daily Maverick for... having set the record straight," it said in a statement.
It called on the South African media to "exercise extreme caution in placing trust in discredited Islamophobic sources that are bent on raising false alarms about so-called terror camps". - Sapa