EFF statement on Sunday Times' Stratcom tactics of de-legitimising the Public Protector report on the Rogue Unit
14 July 2019
The Economic Freedom Fighters condemns the biased, false, and evidently propagandist report, on the front page of the 14 July 2019 Sunday Times. In an attempt to delegitimise the Public Protector Report on the Rogue Unit, which the EFF laid a complaint about, the Sunday Times deliberately misleads its readers, by stating that the source of the whole report is one individual who they, with contradictions, describe as weed smoking, and a former SARS Employee.
The Public Protector Report, that confirms the existence of the Rogue Unit, lists 29 Documents as Key Sources of information for the investigation, yet Sunday Times reduces all these to the so called weed smoking former SARS Employee. The Official Report which the EFF has thoroughly studied, states that the sources for the investigation and findings include:
Advocate Sikhakhane Report on SARS.
KPMG Report on SARS.
Several correspondences between SARS and the Public Protector Office.
Official correspondences between SARS and all the people who are implicated inclusive of Pravin Gordhan, Oupa Magashule, Trevor Manuel, Ivan Pillay.
The Public Protector Report is publicly available for all people of South Africa to read, but because the Sunday Times think that its readers are stupid, they reduce the Public Protector sources of information to one individual. This is exactly how STRATCOM operates, by misinforming the people for a particular purpose.
The most worrying aspect about this is that the author of this Sunday Times story is one Jacques Pauw, who has a close relationship with Pravin Gordhan and Gordhan's Spokesperson, Adrian Lackay. When Pauw launched his book in Hydepark Exclusive Books a few years ago, Pravin Gordhan was the main guest, and was the one signing books on behalf of Pauw. It is also alleged that on several occasions, Pauw wrote to City Press Editors, convincing them not to expose the Rogue Unit because Adrian Lackay, the Spokesperson of Gordhan, who used to work at SARS, was illegally leaking Tax Payers information to him. How the Sunday Times uses such a discredited and conflicted individual, escapes our imagination.
The Sunday Times must decide if it wants to be a Newspaper, or Newsletter of the Rogue Unit. It's direction under Tiso Black Star, and evidently under the new owners, is completely factional and unethical. News platforms must always tell the truth, and should not be used as tools to shield political principals.
Whatever the Sunday Times does, the reality is that the Rogue Unit was established under Pravin Gordhan's leadership of SARS, and hardcore evidence exists that such is the case. The Public Protector's remedial actions are binding, unless set aside by a court of law. The people of South Africa should be wary of STRATCOM Newsletters, like the Sunday Times, because they exist for certain factional agendas, and doing so in an unethical and unjustified manner.
The Sunday Times' nonsensical attempt to delegitimise the Public Protector Report on the Rogue Unit is rejected with the contempt it deserves because it's pure nonsense.
Issued by Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, EFF, 14 July 2019
