MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO.: 2553

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 11 OCTOBER 2013

Mr S J F Marais (DA) to ask the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:

(1) With regard to her stay at Westcliff Hotel, north of Johannesburg between May 2012 and August 2013, (a) for what official purpose did she stay at the specified hotel and (b) why did she not reside at her official residence in Pretoria;

(2)(a) what (i) were the precise dates on which she stayed at the specified hotel, (ii) are the (aa) names and (bb) positions of the persons who accompanied her and stayed at this hotel over the same period and (iii) is the total cost breakdown of her stay at this hotel and (b) which government departments are liable for settling these costs?        NW3040E

REPLY

(1) In responding to the Honourable Member's question, I can only summarise my earlier response provided on the matter. In the aforementioned response, I confirmed that between June 2012 and June 2013 I spent five nights at Westcliff Hotel for official reasons. A copy of my response to a recent newspaper article setting out details is attached for the Honourable Member's ease of reference.

(2) My protectors accompanied and stayed with me at the said hotel. The Policy developed by Parliament on Questions to the National Assembly states that "a question which publishes names of person or statements not strictly necessary to render the question intelligible is not permissible".

MINISTRY

PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

Private Bag X916, Pretoria, 0001

Tel 012 336 1063/ 1183 Fax: 012-3361810

RIGHT TO REPLY: "SISULU LIVES IT UP IN SWANKY WESTCLIFF"

Dear Editor,

After taking time to respond to enquiries by your reporter - Candice Bailey -, your article "Sisulu lives it up in swanky Westcliff", on Sunday 8 September 2013, was a bolt of shock to us. It was clearly a matter of our replies and facts not deterring your publication from having a sensational front page. We have consequently taken the decision to exercise our right of reply holding on to the thinning hope that this right will not fall foul of your editorial scalpel. Sadly, it is only in this way that we can share with the public our version and display the half truths, instigation and malice behind the story you published.    

Looking back, it is hard not to notice the dishonest and unethical conduct of your reporter in this affair. Your reporter first wanted the Minister to confirm that she had stayed at Westcliff Hotel in July and August 2013. Her question, received on Thursday 5 September 2013 stated that "(O)ur sources however, say she has been staying at the hotel for an uninterrupted period since former president Nelson Mandela was hospitalised". Right from the outset this indicated to us that the reporter was on an illogical trip. Madiba's name in the story made for even less sense - unless one remembered its pull, in this case sensational! She was not fazed by the absurdity of the Minister staying in Johannesburg when Madiba was in hospital in Pretoria. That Madiba was hospitalised in June, the same month that the Westcliff closed for renovations, also proved too weak a consideration for your reporter to reconsider her giddy dance with the "impeccable sources". In her enquiries with us, she feigned shock when we drew her attention to this public information of Madiba's hospitalisation and the closing down of the hotel. Anyone with enough sense would have known that the sources' story had no basis, that in fact it was a ludicrous concoction that was intended to create a catchy headline and outrage.

After a few days she needed to recover, your reporter was at it again, hoping we would deny that the Minister had stayed at the hotel so that she would have a big story about "a lying Minister". When we informed her that the Minister spent five nights at the hotel between June 2012 and June 2013 due to official engagements, she was palpably deflated.  It was becoming clear that her story was dying, and her quest for a front page story was also vanishing.

Having refused to send us written questions which we requested on Monday, she then decided to call the Chairperson of the Public Service Association in the Department of Public Service and Administration under the pretext of getting a comment regarding the Minister's stay at the hotel. The Chairperson, whose Union had just returned from the historic launch of the Public Service Charter, informed her that he does not want to be part of her campaign. Clearly she wants to damage the very good relations between government and unions, based on lies.

Further constraining our right of reply, written questions finally arrived on Thursday evening. Faced with the prospect of a fading story, she asked the Ministry's travel agency to supply her with bookings made for the Minister at the Westcliff Hotel, going as far back as 1996. Evidently, the fact that the Minister had stayed at the hotel only 5 nights since June 2012 was drying up the juice in the accounts of the "impeccable sources". It became necessary to recycle old news relating to some alleged flights, which had subsequently been withdrawn by the Ministry of Defence and the fact that Minister is not operating from Batho Pele House.

In what is becoming standard procedure with some journalists, when faced with a challenge of credibility, the semi-dignified way out (or further in this case) is to invoke anonymous sources to paint a picture that you have already chosen.

The reporter was at pains to suggest that there is something amiss about a Minister staying in a hotel in Johannesburg when she has a house in Pretoria. She chose not to point out that this occurs in rare cases when the Minister's engagements and official meetings end very late at night, and she does so when only when she has engagements early the next morning in Johannesburg.

We are not against public scrutiny. Ethical conduct is expected from all of us, but creating fictitious stories in the desperation to get front page news does a disservice to good journalism.

Communications

Issued by Parliament, November 5 2013

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