Five-year hunt for a smoking gun

Published Jun 30, 2010

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The Cape Argus has tried for almost five years to get to the bottom of allegations that some Cape Argus staffers were paid by rivals within the ANC to manage news articles in such a way as to damage the political ambitions of their opponents.

This week one of the accused journalists, Ashley Smith, signed an affidavit acknowledging for the first time that he wrote stories with the intention of boosting the political ambitions of then-Premier Ebrahim Rasool and politicians associated with Rasool. His affidavit states additionally that he and a colleague, political editor Joseph Aranes, were directly involved in setting up a public relations company, Inkwenkwezi Communications, that won at least one contract to do work for provincial government departments.

He also says that he and Aranes held discussions with Rasool to help him formulate a media strategy for his campaign and that he wrote stories that were damaging to Rasool's rivals while feeling obliged to never write damaging articles about Rasool. He states that he believed at the time that additional tenders would be available to Inkwenkwezi if articles that favoured Rasool appeared in the paper.

He states that the two journalists were both paid cash by Zain Orrie, a director of Inkwenkwezi and a good friend of Smith, and that although Rasool never directly paid him any money at all, Smith believed at the time that the cash payments were a reward for his efforts on behalf of Rasool.

This is an account of the efforts of the Cape Argus over the past five years to ascertain the facts after allegations were first voiced by a group of Western Cape ANC politicians and some people in the public relations fraternity.

1. The allegations were first aired in August 2005 when a group of senior provincial ANC figures asked for a meeting with the Cape Argus editor at the time, Ivan Fynn, and a group of the Cape Argus's senior editorial staff. At that meeting two members of the ANC delegation separately took Fynn and the then deputy editor, David Chambers, aside and suggested that two journalists were being paid to write stories that favoured then-premier Ebrahim Rasool in the party's internecine struggles.

Later that day Fynn challenged the staff members in question: political editor Joseph Aranes and political writer Ashley Smith. They both denied the claims. They were asked to put this denial in writing, which they did in September 2005.

2. Despite the denials it was decided to hold an investigation into the allegation. An attorney was appointed to carry out this investigation in conjunction with a senior journalist from Johannesburg, who flew down to Cape Town. Smith and Aranes were suspended while this was under way.

All the players - Rasool and his opponents within the ANC, the journalists involved and others - were interviewed in this process.

The central allegation being tested was that Aranes and Smith were simultaneously working as journalists on the Cape Argus and running the public relations company called Inkwenkwezi, which was being paid by the premier to promote his interests and those of his allies.

The Independent Newspapers preliminary investigation could find no direct link between either journalist and Inkwenkwezi. It was established, however, that Smith's wife was a director of the company and the conflict of interest inherent in this situation was sufficient to immediately bring charges against Smith. It was also discovered that Smith's friend, Zain Orrie, was another director of this company.

While it was established that Smith's wife had submitted Inkwenkwezi invoices for various amounts to provincial government departments, including the premier's office of Rasool, the investigators could find no evidence that money was ever paid directly to Smith or Aranes nor was any evidence uncovered of direct benefit to either journalist.

3. While conflict of interest charges were brought against Smith, lesser charges were brought against Aranes. The investigators accepted Aranes' statement that, as Smith's line manager, he had warned Smith that a conflict of interest existed. He acknowledged that he had not mentioned this to his editor. He was brought before a disciplinary hearing on charges of failing to report on the conflict of interest to his editor.

After three days of hearings Smith chose to resign with immediate effect and the prosecution fell away.

Aranes was found guilty of failing to report a conflict of interest he knew existed and was reinstated in his job at the level of assistant editor, but was stripped of his political editor status. He was given a letter of final warning.

4. In the wake of these events, in March 2006, Chris Whitfield was appointed editor of the Cape Argus. Soon after his appointment the ANC's Max Ozinsky called Whitfield to repeat the allegation and to say that evidence would emerge over time to confirm the allegations.

No evidence has been forthcoming from Ozinsky or anyone else who has repeated the allegation, despite being asked for corroboration on several occasions.

In the absence of information on which to proceed the Cape Argus was unable to take any further action. Aranes continued to work at a senior level but was no longer directing the title's political coverage.

In his three years as editor Whitfield also held discusssions with a number of senior ANC leaders on both sides of the party's divide, as well as with other interested parties who claimed to have knowledge of the allegations.

5. In April 2009 the allegations resurfaced when a payment schedule for Orrie's new public relations company, Hip Hop Media, was leaked to the current editor of the Cape Argus, Gasant Abarder, with the name "J Aranes" reflected on it. A simple enquiry revealed that a niece of Joseph Aranes, named Judith Aranes, was employed at the time at Hip Hop.

6. At the end of 2009 the Mail & Guardian published an article written by Max Ozinsky directly accusing Rasool of using journalists to further his ambitions and claiming that journalists were benefiting financially from their proximity to companies with contracts from the province. He claimed to have proof of this.

Ozinsky was contacted by Cape Argus chief reporter Murray Williams who asked for information to corroborate the claim. None was provided.

A week later it emerged that new allegations were contained in an apparently secretly recorded two-hour discussion that had been held some months earlier between Vukile Pokwana, a shareholder in Hip Hop Media, and Rasool's replacement in the premier's office, Lynne Brown. The tape was apparently made eight days before the national and provincial elections in April 2009.

A report in the Mail & Guardian newspaper quoted Pokwana alleging that journalists were still receiving "brown envelopes" of cash for services to political factions. The M&G posted a two-minute segment of the tape online and quoted Pokwana stating that he had never actually seen cash change hands.

After the existence of the tape emerged, Whitfield, now Editor-in-chief at Independent Newspapers Cape, appointed Williams to investigate the allegations and to report on any information he could find relating to them.

The Cape Argus has tried to corroborate the allegations in the tape and to obtain a copy of the tape through several channels:

- Pokwana was contacted by Williams who offered to book a flight to East London to go and interview him face to face but Pokwana cancelled the meeting shortly before Williams was due to fly. Pokwana told the Cape Argus in a telephone interview he had not heard the tape himself and could not confirm its contents.

- Editor in Chief Chris Whitfield phoned Lynne Brown to ask her how a recording of her meeting had been made. She denied knowing that the meeting had been taped.

- When interviewed by Williams subsequently she said she had ordered the tape to be made and had done so in her private capacity. She said she had no idea where the tape was. She said she had mislaid it in the chaos of moving office.

- Orrie was asked to respond to the allegation that his company was involved. He flatly denied Pokwana's allegation that money was paid to journalists.

- The Cape Argus applied to the Premier's office for a copy in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act. The tape could not be found there.

- The Cape Argus then made a PAIA application for a copy of the tape from Lynne Brown. She provided an edited, unauthenticated transcript of the tape to the Cape Argus and efforts are still under way to secure a complete transcript, including from the people the Cape Argus understands were involved in making the tape.

Whitfield repeated his invitation to accusers to provide evidence of wrongdoing, with the promise that any information would be pursued. None has been forthcoming.

Whitfield publically outlined the company's position on bribery and manipulation of news and noted that he had repeatedly stated that any staff member found to have participated in either would be fired.

In recent days the Cape Argus became aware that Ashley Smith had begun a process to confess his role in the events. Whitfield immediately contacted Smith to probe the rumours. Smith confirmed he was ready to disclose his role and deposed an affidavit.

Whitfield said yesterday: "The Cape Argus publishes this information today as part of its mission to ensure full disclosure of all aspects of this long-running saga. It remains our position that any information of wrongdoing by any member of staff will always be fully investigated and appropriate action will be taken.

"Integrity in our reporting of news is our touchstone and we will not tolerate any manipulation of information, ever.

"Our invitation to anyone with information that can add to our understanding of the events described here is invited to contact Williams on [email protected]".

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