Pule did not report ‘blackmail’
Minister alleges 10-month smear campaign against her
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Dina Pule made the bombshell claim yesterday that journalists responsible for a series of exposés about her were involved in a plot to blackmail her – but she has not reported this to Parliament’s ethics committee or the police.
This is despite the fact that the joint committee on ethics and members’ interests is investigating the Sunday Times reports, among others, with Pule set to testify next week.
The embattled minister, who is also being probed by the public protector, said at a press briefing in Johannesburg yesterday that the “persistent smear campaign” was part of a “highly sophisticated plot to blackmail me”.
She claimed the awardwinning journalists were associated with a “network of business people, politicians and other role-players” – whom she did not name – who had bid for the multibillion-rand settop box tender that is part of the migration to a digital TV signal.
They had conducted the 10month-long “smear campaign” in an attempt to back her into a corner and blackmail her into co-operating, Pule said.
“In their fantasy world, they believed that I, as the minister, have the power to decide who should be awarded the tender.”
One journalist, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, had met her at a Sandton hotel, on the invitation of his “associates”, where he had offered to suppress information about her on condition that she provide him with incriminating information about President Jacob Zuma and leak information about corruption in her department or stateowned entities reporting to her.
“For the record, I rejected all of the proposals,” Pule said.
She said she would be reporting the matter to the Press Ombudsman.
However, answering a question, she said she had not reported the alleged blackmail to the police.
Ben Turok, the chairman of Parliament’s ethics committee, which has a mandate to investigate alleged wrongdoing by members of the executive, said Pule had not made the blackmail claims to the committee and it was not probing them.
Pule had submitted a sworn affidavit and would be given a chance to speak in her defence during hearings next week.
“The basis of our investigation is partly allegations made in the press over some time,” Turok said. This did not refer to just one newspaper.
“We are sensitive to media reports, which is not to say we accept them.”
Reports were “sometimes sensational, sometimes malicious and sometimes pointscoring against politicians”, but it was up to the committee to “sift the chaff from the wheat” and make an independent judgement.
Sunday Times editor Phylicia Oppelt said yesterday that the reports had been in the public interest “with no other motivation in mind”.
The meeting with Wa Afrika had in fact been arranged by the minister’s alleged boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa, and the journalist had not offered to suppress information.
The minister had repeatedly threatened to sue the paper and report it to the Press Ombudsman, but had done neither.
Evidence
If Pule had evidence to back her claims, she should produce it, Oppelt said.
“If she cannot, she should do the right thing and publicly apologise,” she added.
Among the allegations being investigated by the committee are claims that Pule pressured the organiser of the government-sponsored ICT Indaba in 2012 to hire Mngqibisa.
The Sunday Times reported that he was paid R6 million in management fees, despite contributing little to the organisation of the event.
He was also alleged to have withdrawn millions from the organiser’s account, which had been deposited by private companies brought in as co- sponsors of the event.
Pule has denied he was her romantic partner, calling him an “old comrade” yesterday.
She reminded journalists that she had asked the auditorgeneral to investigate the ICT Indaba spending, and he had found no wrongdoing, “either on my part or on the part of the officials”.
Disbursal
However, the auditor-general looked only at the spending of government funds and did not investigate the disbursal of private sponsors’ money.
The Sunday Times also reported that Mngqibisa had bought Pule an expensive pair of Christian Louboutin shoes with money he had received from the indaba.
Last month, the Sunday Times reported that Mngqibisa had “infiltrated the various entities supposedly under Pule’s authority”.
An internal audit had shown Mngqibisa “engineered getting friends and relatives on the boards of the Post Office, Sentech, Usasa and the SABC with the full knowledge of Pule”.
The DA has asked the public protector to include these claims in her investigation.
DA spokeswoman on communications, Marian Shinn, said yesterday that Mngqibisa had last year, reported the Sunday Times to the Press Ombudsman who had found the newspaper was justified in its reporting on the relationship between him and Pule, and dismissed the complaint.
“I suspect the minister is trying to whip up public sympathy ahead of next week’s hearing, which will thoroughly examine her relationship with Mngqibisa,” Shinn said.
The public protector and ethics committee were unlikely to be swayed by her “shots across their bows”.