Gupta leaks: PR spin offer

A local media house – identified in the #GuptaLeaks e-mail tranche – has denied its attempt to act as a spin doctor for the politically connected family, despite evidence to the contrary.

Alocal media house – identified in the Gupta e-mail tranche – has denied its attempt to spin the narrative around the controversial politically-connected family for a fee.

“Nonsense! If you don’t have a news diary to submit to your editors, look for something else from courts, or press releases from labour, political parties, poverty, crime and technology companies,” executive editor Tintswalo Baloyi of the Centre for African Journalists (CAJ) News Africa said in his response to a request for comment.

Shortly afterwards, The Citizen was contacted by CAJ’s group CEO and editor-in-chief, Savious-Parker Kwinika.

“I’m told by this boy Tintswalo Baloyi that you communicated with him something that I’m not so sure about?

“But what he is telling me is disturbing because I don’t know of such things as the editor-in-chief of CAJ News,” Kwinika said.

Baloyi’s e-mail to Gupta company Oakbay on March 16, 2016 under the subject “Media volunteer to defend Gupta family negativity”, offered to set up a meeting between Kwinika and Oakbay to “discuss possibility of doing news articles countering the local negative media blitz aimed at tarnishing the Gupta family and their business [sic]”. Oakbay had not responded to a request for comment at the time of going to press. “CAJ News has noted that the Gupta family is being unfairly reported to portray them negatively as election campaigns hot-up,” Baloyi wrote. “Our media campaigns will help portray the good works and positives that your companies and Gupta family have achieved in South Africa and beyond,” said Baloyi, stressing that the campaign would not fight anyone but report “the truth about the hard work that the Gupta family did to achieve everything they own or have.” He added: “The campaigns will, of course, attract a fee.”

Adjunct Caxton Professor of Journalism at University of the Witwatersrand Anton Harber said this would be grossly unethical for a regular news agency.

“But the CAJ group is a disseminator of government and private sector information rather than an agency.

“Its website is confusing in that it claims to be an agency and promises to raise the bar for journalism standards in Africa, but in fact it is just a purveyor of media releases,” Harber noted.

The e-mail was sent from Oakbay to then CEO Nazeem Howa, who forwarded it to the public relations company running the Guptas’ and Oakbay’s media campaign, Bell Pottinger.

The e-mail’s authenticity was verified by non-profit company Forensics for Justice, which seeks to hold government accountable for its actions, or lack thereof. –

What he is telling me is disturbing.