The Department of Foreign Affairs and various other government departments have regularly briefed the media. It is our view, that over the years we have witnessed a disturbing tendency, inter alia, conscious or unconscious misunderstanding of issues raised or distortions of briefings given. Let me cite some examples: two weeks ago I commented on the unprecedented attacks against foreigners in South Africa. I said:

"The South African government condemns the unprovoked attacks by elements within our society against vulnerable foreign nationals.

It is our view that at this very difficult and challenging time, we should avoid sensationalism. It is the role of the media to investigate more deeply growing reports of the involvement of criminal or other elements in instigating and provoking these attacks, largely against foreigners. Journalists have a very important role not just to report elements of this phenomenon but to try to contextualise why this phenomenon has hit South Africa so seriously in the last few days. I also believe that it is the time to avoid politicking and politicising this situation.

Let us not overlook the disturbing fact that sinister forces (I did not elaborate on these sinister forces) appear to have a hand in the escalation and spread of this repulsive behaviour which has regrettably led to the loss of innocent lives, both of foreigners and South Africans.

Let me clearly state, these attacks in South Africa are not unique to South Africa and I think that many people abroad are fully conscious, that even in their own societies, that given globalisation and other challenges, they have also experienced such phenomena.

It is my view that until we receive a full report about what are the causes - criminal or otherwise - that have exploited a situation of concern for some of our people that foreigners are a scourge because they are taking away jobs and economic opportunities - this is a wrong perception because in many instances it is based on ignorance and provocation from many forces. Whether it is related to Zimbabwe or other political forces in South Africa or other agendas - it is difficult for me to tell until we have the report from the inter-departmental committee and especially the police and other security services. 200 people have been arrested. One hopes that this will open up the space to understand their motivations. That the IFP and ANC have met is an important development between the two political formations to assess involvement by their parties. The Secretary-General of the ANC has spoken on this matter and I think we agree with his view that we cannot come to any conclusions until we have more substantiated information."

Peter Fabricius who was not at the briefings wrote:

"Aziz Pahad likened these ‘sinister' elements to the Third Force of rightwingers inside and outside the old apartheid government, which stoked much of the apparently black-on-black violence between ANC and IFP supporters during the negotiations for a democratic South Africa."

He erroneously links this to the Browse report and to Zimbabwe and links my comments on the xenophobia and then inexplicably accuses the "Mbeki people" of suggesting that there is "a conspiracy by Western forces to take over the country. In other words, their heads are still stuck pretty firmly in the conspiracy-prone, spy-versus spy, communist versus fascist thinking of the last century."

He ends by asking - "must there always be a white right winger to carry the moral responsibility?"

I challenge Fabricius to substantiate his assertions that any South African government statement has referred to a western conspiracy regarding Zimbabwe and the role of white right wingers in orchestrating attacks against foreigners in South Africa.

It seems that Fabricius and others might have sources that we are not privy to.

However, as the Director-General of the Presidency Frank Chikane, in his briefing to the media yesterday indicated: while we have experienced this tendency in international relations it is in relation to Zimbabwe that we have seen it effected in its worst forms.

Recently, we have once again been subjected to front page headlines in the Sunday Times about a letter purportedly sent to President Mbeki by the President of the MDC Morgan Tshvangirai. This was covered by all sectors of the media, including the public broadcaster, before efforts were made to ascertain the existence of such a letter.

The Sunday Times quoted widely from this letter which we believe, as said by Rev Frank Chikane, can only be aimed at undermining the facilitation process and is yet another example of using this to personally attack the President and denigrate the role of the Presidency.

Why does the media not try to determine whether such a letter exists. I can reiterate what Rev Chikane yesterday said, that we categorically state that neither the President, the Facilitation team, nor Foreign Affairs has received this phantom letter.

But the Sunday Times boldly asserts that they have "assurances" that these letters were received and that there are acknowledgement of receipts from the Presidency. It is significant that it is today reported that the spokesperson of the MDC has indicated that they are not aware of any such letter. The logical conclusion can only be that the story of the letter did not emanate from the MDC but from a source only known to the Sunday Times which was followed by the rest of the media without any attempts to ascertain the veracity and authenticity of such a letter.

This is the latest in a consistent flow of misinformation and distortion.

In my last briefing I dealt with the Chinese ship. The allegation that President Mbeki had ordered the Deputy Minister of Defence to refuel the ship - despite the refutation of the story it persists. It is important for us to try and identify the source of the story.

As you remember, already as early as August 2007, as quoted by Rev Chikane yesterday, the Presidency issued a statement correcting media reports which claimed that President Mbeki would present a report at the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit held in Lusaka, Zambia August 16-17 2007 which would blame Britain for Zimbabwe's political and economic challenges.

The statement made it clear that the Presidency was not aware of any such report and that, if any such existed at all, certainly, "it was not authored by the Government of the Republic of South Africa."

Regrettably, all sectors of the media did not take our statement seriously and, apparently, without further qualms, persisted in attributing the report to President Mbeki. What is significant is that our investigations later revealed that the new report originated from a news agency stringer, based in Lusaka, a stringer who had been handed a copy of "the" report and then deliberately, fallaciously, attributed it to President Mbeki instead of to is real author. The new agency later retracted its report, albeit, in no more than three paragraphs. None of the other local and international media who reported on the matter retracted, nor offered any apology.

Again, on September 14 2007, the Presidency issued a statement in which we rebutted the falsehood which some media reported at length to the effect that "the South African government ... has been secretly working to remove (President Mugabe) from power" through "lobbying for sustained international pressure to bear on the Mugabe regime." This is contrary to all other reports that say that President Mbeki is attempting to keep President Mugabe in power.

In April there was a sustained attempt to present President Mbeki's answer to a specific question about whether at that point (April 12) the election process in Zimbabwe constituted a crisis. Both the context of the question and the detail of the reply was ignored; resulting in the impression that the President was oblivious to the challenges in Zimbabwe."

Also unsubstantiated claims that the Mbeki's are blood relatives of Mrs Graca Machel [Grace Mugabe presumably - Ed] and links to shady business deals. Also that since the 29th March 2008 elections President Mugabe has secretly been hiding in Mahlamba Ndlophu for fear of reprisal in an impending military coup.

We have experienced significant distortions in relation to how the Zimbabwe issue was dealt with in the Security Council.

The challenge for the South Africa media is to determine what the sources of such fabrications are. A healthy media is necessary for any democracy. Any government does seek constructive criticism. As good journalists you must seek to determine whether such reports are co-ordinated or deliberate and what the objectives are.

Apologies following every such incident are of no value especially when the damage has already been done locally and internationally to South Africa's reputation and indeed to our commitment to dealing with issues on an international level, including Zimbabwe, in a way that would help us find solutions.

It is therefore our strong view, following the Presidency's own statement yesterday that we would like the agencies to really be a bit more vigilant about the sources of information. It is very difficult for us to conduct international relations, at least from where I am coming, when all we are trying to do is clear up false reports appearing in the South African media. Indeed, I believe the international community is more aware of the realities that are projected in our media but their ambassadors report largely from what they see in the South African media.

In this context let me remind you, especially with regard to the xenophobic attacks: recently IDASA produced a major report - Coverage of Cross Border Migration to South Africa since 2000 - and it goes on to say that newspapers and news wire services in South Africa have played a major role in inflaming xenophobic sentiments. Its research shows that less than 10% of South Africans had "a great deal of contact with foreigner Africans and that therefore anti immigration sentiment in the region is not primarily a result of personal experience with foreigners but rather the product of misinformation from secondary sources including the media."

And it concludes, "there are signs of a shifting, albeit, polarised approach to coverage of the issues at least in South Africa but xenophobic writing and editorialisation remains a constant problem."

So it is clear, not just a sychophantic concern of Foreign Affairs about how we are dealing with the issues but clearly studies by independent NGOs are reflecting what we have been trying to say for some time....

Questions and answers

Question: Deputy Minister, time is running out for the Presidential run-off elections in Zimbabwe. When will a South African observer team be deployed? Do you have any comment on the arrest and detention of the Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai?

Question: Deputy Minister, the Facilitation Process - how does the arrest of the Opposition Leader affect the process?

Question: Deputy Minister, the general climate in Zimbabwe - how does this bode for a free and fair run-off election in the country?

Question: Deputy Minister, can you please provide more information on the observer teams and what it is they will be required to do?

Answer The Extraordinary SADC Summit which was held in Zambia took a decision that we must do everything possible to ensure that the Presidential run-off elections, at the minimum, is carried out in the same way, as the March 29th elections. It was also decided that SADC observers should be increased in numbers and since then, the Secretariat has been mandated, with the Chair of the Organ - Angola - to do everything possible to ensure our numbers are substantially increased. The Director-General of Foreign Affairs went to Zimbabwe last week to make the necessary arrangements.

We expect that the preliminary group of observers, at least South Africans, will go to Zimbabwe during this week and that the majority of South Africans to reinforce the SADC observers should be place sometime next week. It is quite significant for us to try and reiterate that our SADC observer mission had the mandate, not just to report, but to intervene whenever accusations were made and wherever there were allegations of problems arising including violence within the framework of the electoral processes so our job was not just to observe the voting, the missions were there long before and were intervening.

Each side raised objections and on the basis of this the observer mission intervened with the other side to get clarification and take the necessary actions where allegations were proven to be true.

As you know and let me repeat it, allegations of violence have been made since the elections. President Mbeki has dispatched a group of senior retired generals to Zimbabwe to assess the situation and to report back to him on this situation - this is an ongoing process.

The issue of the violence, of the arrest of the MDC Opposition Leader, the media yesterday also reported that Human Rights lawyers are fleeing the country - I believe there are frameworks and processes that enable all these matters to be raised officially with the facilitation. I can provide an undertaking that the Facilitation is obliged to follow up each allegation. Despite some sceptical thinking, we are totally convinced that the rule of law must prevail in Zimbabwe and in the end, we are totally convinced that whatever happens - the will of the people must be reflected in the coming elections. Therefore the Facilitation has the task of ensuring that this, and any other issues that can impact on the electoral processes, have to be raised with the government authorities to ensure that we put a stop to any such activities that hinders the will of the people being expressed. That is the task of the Facilitation. As you know, the Facilitation is not under Foreign Affairs, it is under a special Presidential committee which deals with this on a daily basis and contrary to what the media has said about this phantom letter, when Morgan Tsvangirai gave the President a report about the militarization of the rural areas, the President on his way to the Extraordinary SADC Summit stopped in Zimbabwe for two reasons: to try and arrange a meeting between President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai which this phantom letter alludes to but distorts and secondly to hand over this letter Morgan Tsvangirai had given to him regarding the militarization of the rural areas. This same report was submitted by the President to the SADC Extraordinary Summit.

So, there has not been an occasion when an issue has been raised by either side to the Facilitation that has not been brought to the attention of the other side.

I have indicated to the media through my other briefings, but I am not sure you are reading it, perhaps it bores you because I repeat the same things - I said that despite all the skepticism, nobody, including the European Union, has challenged that the last elections have been the best in Zimbabwe and was the best opportunity for the will of the people to be reflected. Nobody challenges this. We all expressed our concern regarding the delays in the announcement of the Presidential election results but we always explained, that through the Facilitation, the process of ensuring that all results are posted outside each polling station within hours. Everybody had all these results.

Our task now is not to speculate on things that cannot be done before the elections but to work together with others including SADC and the African Union which will send more observers to the run-off to ensure we create the conditions that even the opposition will acknowledge will give them the same conditions they had in March so we are not speculating. We are quite genuinely trying to deal with this situation. The Zimbabweans had an excellent opportunity in the last elections and these are reflected in the results. There is still speculation that there was a result of 50 + 1 - but by and large the results reflect what was obvious the day after the elections.

My problem is that not that we are not aware of allegations, it is that no one is acknowledging that the March 29th elections were the best elections in Zimbabwe. Why can't we work to improve on this?

I'm not a soothsayer, I cannot predict what the outcome of the Presidential run-off elections will be. We must ensure that the will of the people can be adequately expressed.

The Facilitation is not just a "toy telephone." There is interaction - the President himself, when things have reached a critical stage - has flown to Zimbabwe - the facilitation team constantly travels to Zimbabwe - the Zimbabwean parties come to South Arica on a regular basis so there is much direct interaction between the Facilitation the Zimbabweans involved in the process. It is a dynamic process. It is still incumbent for us to ensure that the 41 countries and organizations who were invited to observe the March 29th elections will also increase their participation as observers so that at the end we can emerge with at least a common understanding that some of the issues that were raised has been dealt with and that the will of the people can be reflected.

Many media reports are speaking of some form of coalition government - MDC has said the same thing - this is not a decision the Facilitation can take - this is a decision for the Zimbabwean people - what form of government they want.

The key point is the presidential election. My view is that we must ensure that all allegations that can impact on the outcomes of the elections must be dealt with. The Zimbabweans have stated - from various angles - leaked or unleaked - that they want a government of reconciliation/unity. This is a Zimbabwean decision - we will support them fully on any decision they will take. This is the only agenda we have regarding Zimbabwe so that Zimbabwe can become a player in our SADC Strategic Framework of Action.

These are extracts from a transcript of the briefing by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad to the media, Cape Town, Thursday June 5 2008. Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs June 5 2008