The African National Congress has denied claims that the loan of trucks and buses for its election campaign last year was irregular.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said in a statement ”for the record” that the ANC was loaned 10 trucks and two buses by the MAN Truck and Bus South Africa during its election campaign.
”The ANC’s campaign trucks were launched at a public event, attended by members of the media, on 14 January 2004. At the event, which was covered on SABC TV news, the ANC acknowledged the loan of the trucks by MAN Truck and Bus.”
As part of the ordinary process of preparation for such a campaign, the ANC sought to mobilise the resources necessary to conduct an effective campaign, said Ngonyama’s statement.
According to a report in Business Day, MAN Truck and Bus is a sister company of MAN Ferrostaal, which heads the consortium supplying submarines to South Africa.
The newspaper said MAN Ferrostaal was lagging in its contractual offset obligations at the time the deal was brokered and faced being penalised by government.
The ANC statment said that despite being provided with all the relevant information, Business Day ”published an article that is incorrect in almost every material respect”.
”The tone of the article, together with the fact that the ANC’s comments are not even included [while those of the Democratic Alliance are], suggest that the intention of the article was something other than the presentation of a fair, balanced and accurate account,” said the ANC statement. – Sapa, Staff Reporter