The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Wednesday claimed it had proof that KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele ordered provincial government departments to cease advertising in the Sunday Tribune newspaper.
The IFP’s KwaZulu-Natal caucus leader Lionel Mtshali said in a statement: ”The IFP has acquired an extraordinary proof of its earlier statement in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial parliament about the provincial government threatening the Independent Newspapers group with reprisals for the investigative coverage of the mismanagement in the department of agriculture by the Sunday Tribune.”
The statement by Mtshali follows a report in the Mercury newspaper that Mtshali ”will have to answer to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature disciplinary committee for allegedly making a misleading statement”.
On March 1, Mtshali released a statement that the provincial government had pulled R200 000-worth of advertising as a result of negative media reports.
At the time Ndebele rubbished the claims, saying they were an ”outrageous and despicable lie” and ”a pathetic attempt to get cheap publicity”.
In Wednesday’s statement Mtshali claimed that the IFP acquired a text message sent on November 26 2006 from the then director general in the office of the premier, Professor Mandla Mchunu.
This text message had been sent to all heads of department and according to the IFP read: ”The premier has directed that govt departments and provincial public entities should not place their adverts and public announcements on the Tribune newspaper. Thanks. DG.”
Mchunu could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
The IFP claimed it had ”originally obtained the information from a source inside the Independent Newspapers group”.
Mtshali said: ”We were determined to protect the identity of the source at all costs. This undoubtedly encouraged the ruling party in parliament to trigger a disciplinary hearing against me for allegedly misleading the house.”
The Sunday Tribune’s editor, Allan Dunn, said in March that the group had had ”no official word of this [the cancellation of the advertising]”.
”We will seek the reasons should there be anything to it. As of now, the truth is that the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government continues to advertise in our newspapers. Should there be any difficulties between us, I believe we’ll be able to overcome them by direct contact and without sacrificing any principles.” — Sapa