DA vs Sunday Times: forceful Zille clears the air

The Sunday Times was led on by someone who has an axe to grind. That is the gist of the sizeable ream of documents on the communications tender handed over to the media by Western Cape premier Helen Zille. This "leak" is an example of the sort of factional battle that her government is trying to stop by consolidating communications under one company, it seems.

By Sipho Hlongwane & Osiame Molefe

18 Aug 2011

"Someone, somewhere with an agenda leaked a particular document - one document out of many - at a particular phase of the process to make it look like there was something regulatorily wrong or untoward with the tender. [This person] sought to give an impression of no due process or corruption, which was not the case."

These were the fighting words of Western Cape premier Helen Zille at a press conference on Wednesday, 17 August 2011. She convened it to give the provincial government's side of the story after the Sunday Times published a story alleging procedural irregularity in a communications tender issued by the Western Cape government to TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris.

According to Zille, there is absolutely no truth in the suggestion that there was anything improper or unprocedural in awarding the tender. The Sunday Times reached this conclusion be relying on one document which didn't give the full picture. Using this one document, the weekly paper could indeed construe that there was something problematic about the deal.

Continue reading the full story on www.thedailymaverick.co.za.

See also:

Politicsweb: Western Cape Government's communications tender - the comprehensive story (full statement containing timeline of events)
Talk Radio 702: podcast of Helen Zille vs Ray Hartley debate
Twitter Search: Zille "Sunday Times"

Source: Daily Maverick

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About Sipho Hlongwane & Osiame Molefe

A proud Zulu who hails from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, Sipho Hlongwane is a self-taught journalist who now writes for the Daily Maverick (www.thedailymaverick.co.za). Email him at az.oc.kcirevamyliadeht@ohpis and follow him on Twitter at @comradesipho.

Osiame Molefe is a Cape Town-based writer who contributes to the Daily Maverick and ZANews. Follow him on Twitter at @TOMolefe.