Zille in Twitter spat over dropping Cape newspaper

THE decision not to renew any Western Cape government subscriptions to the Cape Times saw Premier Helen Zille become embroiled in a Twitter spat with radio show host Redi Tlhabi.

This week it emerged that Zille had written to all Western Cape government departments stating that due to its declining quality, all subscriptions to the Cape Times would not be renewed.

Zille questioned the newspaper’s ethics in her weekly newsletter, saying a story that they had written about foetal alcohol syndrome had been largely plagiarised.

She wrote that when she attempted to contact the newspaper for details about a “Baby Thomas” mentioned in the article in a bid to get the child help, the newspaper had declined on the basis that it was protecting its sources.

The decision by the DA-controlled province, which has been at loggerheads with The Cape Times for a long time, has however been rumoured to be imminent since the beginning of the year.

Zille was interviewed on air yesterday by Tlhabi about the decision. Zille argued that the decision was based purely on the declining quality of the newspaper which she claimed made “repeated errors of fact” and was accused of plagiarism.

Tlhabi meanwhile argued that the decision was comparable to the ANC calling for a boycott of the City Press after it published the controversial The Spear painting.

“Why are you so tender?” Tlhabi asked on air to which Zille shot back: “Why is the media so tender?”.

In a series of tweets afterwards, Tlhabi said: “this is not about your right to hold and argue your view strongly. It is also not about endorsing unethical or poor journalism”. Zille tweeted: “This has nothing to do with Cape Times ‘views’. They have disagreed with us for years. It is about facts and ethics.”