/ 26 April 2017

What Mbalula actually said about the Tbo Touch app

What Mbalula

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has denied  reports that suggested he encouraged South Africans to download radio personality Thabo “TB Touch” Molefe’s to report crime. So what did the minister actually say?

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Mbalula outlined his plans to fight crime in his first 100 days in office. 

He said: “… the environment has developed to an extent that cyber crime has actually become dominant in the republic. But how do we equally use technology to respond to criminality in the country? And there are many apps. You know there is an app that you download every day, it is called Touch HD. It is a radio station – or a Cliff Central. I want you to download an app from your cellphones to fight criminality,” Mbalula said.

Tbo Touch partnered with media personality Gareth Cliff, founder of Cliff Central, another digital radio station, to create the Touch HD app. The initial reports that Mbalula had apparently encouraged South Africans to download Touch HD gained traction due to a prior a news story linking the minister and Tbo Touch in an alleged deal.

Earlier this week, News24 reported that a murdered businessman from the North West, Wandile Bozwana, had directed a Bloemfontein law firm to send R1-million to Tbo Touch. The money was then sent to Mbalula to allegedly pay for his highly publicised trip to Las Vegas in 2015. The then sports minister travelled to Las Vegas to attend the sought after boxing match between boxing giants Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. 

Mbalula’s spokesperson Esethu Hasane has denied the accusations .

At his 100 days in office briefing, Mbalula said that he planned to launch an app that would possibly help users locate police stations and and alerts them to the dangers they are likely to face.