‘You stole my work’

‘You stole my work’
JOURNALIST SUES CULTURAL LEADER FOR R500 000
CANDICE SOOBRAMONEY
Published in the front-page of POST December 28-January 1 2012 (South Africa)
A JOURNALIST is suing respected community leader TP Naidoo for half a million rands.
Marlan Padayachee, currently a media and communications strategist, claims Naidoo plagiarised his work.
Naidoo is the director of the Indian Academy of South Africa and has played an active role in promoting Indian culture in South Africa. Last year he authored the book The Settler: Tribulations, Trials and Triumph. It was published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Indians coming to South Africa.
It included a series titled The 1946 Resisters.
Padayachee claims he wrote the series but Naidoo failed to acknowledge his contribution.
He has now filed papers in the Durban Magistrate’s Court claiming half a million rands.
Padayachee said from 1988 to 2004 he assisted Naidoo in compiling and contributing stories and profiles on community icons for the publication The Indian Annual. Until then he had complaints about working with Naidoo.
In 2009 he approached Naidoo with a proposal.
“I told him I was putting together a series of updated and rewritten articles, which previously appeared in the e Indian Annual, on the 1946 series. It was accepted for the 2010 special edition and I was subsequently paid R3 000.”
After the book The Settler was launched Padayachee realized Naidoo had taken credit for an interview he (Padayachee) did with South African anti-apartheid activist Yusuf Dadoo in London in 1983.
According to Padayachee the (then) Argus newspaper group assigned him to cover the three-day conference in London on United Nations’ sanctions against South African sport.
While there he conducted interviews with freedom fighters including Dadoo, who at that stage was in exile.
When he returned home he wrote a series of articles for the Sunday Tribune.
At a later stage some of them were rewritten, updated and published in The Indian Annual.
“I had not seen the draft (of The Settler) and was surprised when I realized I was not rightfully credited.
“Naidoo is not a journalist and was never in London in 1983. He was in Durban. I couldn’t and still cannot understand why he took credit for my work when it was previously published in The Indian Annual and I was credited for it.”
Padayachee consulted attorney Siven Samuel and served summons.
He demanded R500 000 in lieu of Naidoo’s failure to acknowledge his work.
This was followed by a second summons this month.
Padayachee said Naidoo believed the proprietorship of any article that appeared in The Indian Annual belonged to the Indian Academy of which he is the Editor.
“But he cannot claim credit for another professional’s work. He is well aware that each of the stories I submitted over the years had my copyright> then by adding his name to the Dadoo story, he erroneously gave the impression he wrote the entire series.
“I will not stand for that. He has committed plagiarism and political fraud.”
Asked if this could have been an oversight on Naidoo’s part, Padayachee remarked: “This is no oversight. He wanted credit for himself.”
Padayachee said he was writing a book on his journalistic career and feared other writers and historians would dispute his information, which Naidoo staked claim to.
“I will not allow this to go unchecked. If he continues to publish further editions of my work, he will continue to abuse my intellectual property and history will record it as that.”
Naidoo’s daughter said her father did not want to comment.

Published in Durban by Post newspaper at Independent Newspaper KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, on the 28th December 2011. Copyright Post/INKZN.