MKMVA outraged by the deliberately false reporting of eNCA

5 March 2018

The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) held a media conference yesterday during which we issued a statement reflecting the deliberations of the MKMVA NEC which took place on the 3rd and 4th of March 2018.

The MKMVA statement explicitly stated that MKMVA accepts the changes that President Cyril Ramaphosa made to the National Executive (popularly know as the Cabinet), and reiterated that we accept that it is President Ramaphosa's prerogative to decide on the composition of his Cabinet.

During the media conference the President of MKMVA, comrade Kebby Maphatsoe, reiterated this position without expressing any reservation whatsoever. No one of MKMVA said as much as a word that we are 'unhappy' with the changes that President Ramaphosa made to the National Executive.

Yet, despite not having done so, and the media conference having been recorded on camera by the eNCA news team that covered the event, eNCA reported erroneously on their news website that MKMVA said that we are 'unhappy' with the redeployment of comrade Des van Rooyen, and that he is no longer a member of the National Executive. It needs to be reiterated that no-one from MKMVA present at the media conference had said anything to that effect. Other media such as the The New Age had no difficulty to report correctly what MKMVA said at the media conference.

MKMVA engaged the reporter from ENCA, Mr. Khaya Khumalo, about this blatantly wrong report, and he acknowledged that the report on the eNCA news website is wrong. We also raised the matter with the senior news editors of eNCA and demanded that a correction should be published, and that the President of MKMVA be given an opportunity to put the record straight on the eNCA news channel. Despite the President and National Spokesperson of MKMVA having been promised by Mr. Khumalo and the eNCA news editors that they "will look into the matter and correct it", absolutely nothing had been done.

This piece of blatant false reporting is damaging to MKMVA, and to comrade Design van Rooyen. Having given eNCA ample opportunity to correct their false report, and them not having done so, we cannot come to any other conclusion but that they continue to promote this false report with the deliberate intention to create a blatantly wrong public narrative that is damaging to the image of MKMVA as well comrade Des van Rooyen. We are therefore left with no other option but to issue this statement of correction.

MKMVA will also lodge an official complaint with Broadcasting Complaints Commission, and for as far as eNCA also promoted this deliberately false story in the print media we will also lodge a formal complaint with the Press Ombudsman.

It is high time that the irresponsible and deliberate false distortions by many of our media should be tackled head-on. eNCA should be ashamed of themselves, and after having given them ample time to correct their deliberately false story, MKMVA will not hold back to call them out and to shame them.

Issued by Carl Niehaus, NEC Member of MKMVA and National Spokesperson, 5 March 2018