The department of communications (DOC), which recently appointed a new spin doctor, in the form of Wisani Ngobeni, to manage the growing fall-out over allegations of nepotism and corruption against its minister, Dina Pule, has again gone on the attack against the Sunday Times.
At the weekend, Ngobeni issued a statement in which he said the DOC was “flabbergasted” by the “confession” by the newspaper’s editor, Phylicia Oppelt, in the City Press “confirming that the Sunday Times collaborated with the Democratic Alliance in a desperate attempt to influence the outcome” of a parliamentary committee’s investigation into the allegations against Pule.
The minister stands accused of enriching Phosane Mngqibisa, who the Sunday Times has described as her boyfriend, through last year’s ICT Indaba held in Cape Town.
Ngobeni, seconded to the DOC from the Free State provincial government, where he served controversial premier Ace Magashule, said on Sunday that the department condemned the “unethical conduct of the Sunday Times and its editors” and encouraged the South African National Editors’ Forum to “take note of this shameful behavior”.
The development that appears to have enraged Ngobeni is that DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, who is part of parliament’s investigation into Pule, handed in a document that contained information given to her by the Sunday Times.
Sunday’s City Press report quoted Oppelt as saying that the Sunday Times was concerned that the committee “might reach a finding based on partial evidence” and therefore felt obliged to cooperate in the probe. “Pule’s actions are of great public interest, and that is where the focus should remain,” Oppelt told the newspaper.
“This latest revelation raises serious questions about the Sunday Times’s independence and its adherence to the press code,” said Ngobeni. “The Sunday Times is no longer just the messenger. It has become part of the story. Oppelt’s confession raises the spectre of the dark days of apartheid when the nexus between politics and journalism was often murky and shameful.” — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media