ANC FILES COMPLAINT WITH PRESS OMBUDSMAN ON SUNDAY TIMES STORY

15 March 2016

The African National Congress (ANC), together with the Deputy Secretary General (DSG) of the organisation, Comrade Jessie Duarte have submitted today, 15 March 2016, a joint complaint to the Press Ombudsman in relation to the story published in the Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday, 13 March 2015, titled “How the Guptas shopped for Finance Minister”.

It is the assertion of the ANC and the DSG that the article was a grave indictment of standards at a publication believed to uphold rigorous editorial processes . We remain convinced that the story sought to undermine the authority of the President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Jacob Zuma and impugn the reputation of the DSG by entrenching a narrative of an ANC leadership controlled by the Gupta family.

We once again reiterate our position that the Deputy Secretary General of the ANC, Comrade Jessie Duarte, did not offer any position in Cabinet to Comrade Mcebisi Jonas. Cabinet appointments are the sole prerogative of the President. 

It is an insult to the readers of Sunday Times, who expecting to see facts in the reporting of the paper, are confronted with dodgy disclaimers such as “said to have been” and “believed to have called” despite the vehement denial of the individual implicated in the story. The attempt to drag the name of the DSG to support the so-called story and presenting as fact what could not reasonably have been true is in contravention of the Press Code. The ANC therefore will be demanding that theSunday Times apologies to the Deputy Secretary General, Comrade Jessie Duarte and the organisation. We further wish that this apology is published prominently in the next edition of the paper.

Statement issued by Zizi Kodwa, ANC national spokesperson, 15 March 2016