A probe has been ordered into the leaking of SMS messages over an apparent secret love affair between a married Western Cape provincial minister and a journalist, the Cape Times reported on Thursday.
Announcing the move, provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool said there had been ”several incidents of breaches of provincial government security” in the past few weeks.
Cape Town newspaper Daily Voice, which exposed the alleged affair, refused to divulge its sources. It said Rasool was seeking to ”shoot the messenger”.
The newspaper reported last week about the alleged affair between community safety provincial minister Leonard Ramatlakane and a 30-year-old South African Broadcasting Corporation journalist.
It backed this up with what was said to be transcripts of intimate SMS messages between the two.
Rasool contended the leak broke laws that protected government and society from ”illegal surveillance”.
”The provincial government views this in a very serious light and I have asked for a full investigation. The law must then take its course on completion of the investigation.”
Rasool had asked the police to probe how the SMS messages were accessed and later made public, reported the Cape Times website. — Sapa