Zille's communications contract woes grow

So many new facts and contradictions emerged that DA leader Helen Zille must regret the day she snubbed The New Age/SABC Business Briefing which was to take place on Thursday 31 January 2013.

Since Zille declared war on the media for news reporting on her party's devious dealings on the controversial communications contract and her double standards that a whole new can of worms were opened on the TBWA\ Hunt Lascaris tender of the Western Cape provincial government.

Leader of the Opposition in the Western Cape provincial legislature Lynne Brown (ANC MPL and NEC member) says: "It has since emerged that the TBWA tender has been hypocritically extended at the end of last year while a decision was taken in May 2012 not to prolong it (Zille agreed with this), but to start a whole new fresh tender process. It had seven months' time to start over. Even the treasury alerts on this contract should have cautioned Zille's department not to merely lengthen it but to timeously start a new process!

Brown says: "Why would the bid committee not re-appoint TBWA, as chairperson Carol Avenant came from a TBWA subsidiary and all the DA deployed staff would co-operate and approve this extension? Even Director General Brent Gerber negated his own letter of instruction that a new process should be followed and signed off to approve the renewal!

"More interesting is that former DA MP import Nick Clelland-Stokes was also a member of the committee that approved the extension. He is one of the advisors named in the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's report slamming ‘improper' DA deployment of advisors, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as part of four findings of maladministration with the initial tender process. Now Clelland-Stokes is appointed under a special contract in the department and he wholesale supports the extension to impose his boss' will!"

"There are still too many dubious communication shenanigans going on in the department of the premier and around this contract for comfort. It is also interesting to see how many media workers like broadcasters and reporters are directly or indirectly ‘working' for the premier. Who and what next will fall out of the communications conniving woodworks?"

Statement issued by Lynne Brown, ANC leader of the opposition in the Western Cape legislature, January 30 2013

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