Manyi short on detail at inquiry
POT SHOTS: CRITICISES GORDHAN’S TESTIMONY
Former government spin doctor refuses to discuss meeting with Zwane.
Former chief executive of Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) Mzwanele Manyi yesterday used his appearance before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture to promote the defunct The New Age newspaper and question how any of the testimony so far has implicated the Gupta family in state capture.
Manyi claimed there has been a lack of evidence at the inquiry which has led to him “struggling” to connect the controversial Gupta family to state capture.
“People we have heard here have just been poetic. I am struggling to convict people based on poetry,” he said.
Manyi said he was “disappointed” after booking off the entire day to listen to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan give testimony. He felt Gordhan failed to give solid evidence linking the Guptas to state capture.
Manyi also called into question testimony given by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, and former GCIS chief executive Themba Maseko.
Later in his testimony, he refused to give details about the discussions between himself and former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane had with Standard Bank officials. Manyi was Zwane’s advisor at the time.
Manyi has been questioned over his attendance of a meeting to discuss the bank’s attempts to shut down the Guptas’ accounts.
His business Afrotone Media took over both of the Guptas’ media outlets The New Age and TV station ANN7 in August 2017.
Manyi described The New Age as “a welcome development” against “a mainstream media hostile to government”.
In a move aimed at contradicting current acting GCIS chief executive Phumla Williams’ earlier
People we have heard here have just been poetic.
testimony, Manyi produced a letter he said was to the contrary, written by Williams which was published in the Daily Maverick in February 2013. She had claimed at the commission the GCIS was under political pressure to spend millions on The New Age advertising and breakfasts.
“The letter was written by Miss Williams in an answer to the Daily Maverick, which claimed that the TNA breakfasts were elitist,” he said.
“I was not at the GCIS at the time. She said the TNA breakfasts appealed to government to reach millions of viewers, allowed audience to engage with leaders on policies...”
While the The New Age received R8 million (4.5%) from the GCIS’s R194 million advertising spend in the 2010-11 financial year, Manyi could not explain to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and senior counsel Isaac Maleka, why the newspaper – during its first year in business – received a share which surpassed established newspapers. –