When Daily Maverick journalist, Kevin Bloom, wrote to Patience Mnisi, the wife of Deputy President David Mabuza, about her alleged involvement in the sale of land in the Nkomazi Wilderness area in Mpumalanga, he didn’t take her response to heart.
Bloom proceeded to write an article that the Daily Maverick on Human Rights Day, March 21, published on page 1 and 2 of its paper.
The article features an illustrative image of Mabuza and Mnisi, and is Bloom’s account of the case of Fred Daniel, whom Bloom seems to be a cult-follower of, brought against 26 respondents, Mabuza being one of them.
Under the heading “The Mabuzas and the giant Mpumalanga land claims scam”, with the sub-heading “Mnisi has been implicated in brokering the sale of 12 000ha of Nkomazi nature reserve to the national government”, Bloom proceeded.
Mnisi, according to Bloom, was implicated in a statement by human rights lawyer Richard Spoor in receiving substantial commission in the transactions.
Bloom proceeded to inform readers of Mnisi’s involvement. Preceding the article, Bloom wrote to Mnisi, asking her for comment and answers. Her response has come back to haunt Bloom.
“Mr Bloom, please don’t be misled by Mr Daniel and his team, your reputation is worth a lot more than that,” Mnisi cautioned Bloom.
Mnisi continued: “I reiterate, there is more to this than what meets the eye and I take comfort that you will get to the bottom of it, being part of the Daily Maverick.”
Mnisi denied that she received commission on the sale of the land and begged Bloom to ask Spoor for proof of the statement he had made.
Mnisi also asked of Bloom to get her full response to the attention of the readers and not cherry pick her response to “suit a false story”.
That, after all, is what a responsible journalists should do. Mnisi had misconceived confidence in Bloom and the Daily Maverick.
Bloom proceeded to write his article, and the article makes for concerning reading. In short, Spoor made a statement that Mnisi made commission on the land in question.
In fact, so Bloom says, in 2015 Mnisi made R5 000 000. Mabuza and Mnisi basically working in tandem, him blocking Daniel to develop the land and when Daniels is forced to give up the land, enters Mnisi who rakes in millions in commission.
Bloom writes that when Spoor gave verbal evidence, “for whatever reason, Advocate Jacques Joubert failed to ask him about substantiations for his Mnisi remark”.
What Bloom doesn’t tell his readers is that he knows very well why Joubert didn’t ask the question. It is because Spoor told Joubert that he had none.
In questions The Star put to Spoor, he responded that he had no proof that Mnisi received commission, but more importantly, that he told Bloom and Joubert that he had not proof.
Bloom not only fails to mention this but plays stupid as to the reason Joubert didn’t ask the question to Spoor. In his response to The Star, Spoor extends an apology to Mnisi “if my recall was based upon incorrect information furnished to me”.
But Bloom’s vindictiveness doesn’t stop there. He fails to record Mnisi’s response or her pertinent denial of ever receiving commission in the printed version of the Daily Maverick.
He is more sly dealing with Mnisi’s response in the electronic publication. There he publishes her response in a much much smaller print , accessible only when the reader is a Scribd subscription holder.
Alternatively, the Mnisi response is cut off from top to bottom in the middle of the electronic page so that it makes no sense to the reader. Nowhere in either edition does Bloom record that Mnisi denies this allegation.
“Let me repeat my response for the record, I received no commission,” Mnisi said.
Bloom failed to tell his readers this. “ ’Never spoil a good story with the facts’ is a phrase journalists sometimes use jokingly. Bloom practised it, it would seem,” an acquaintance of Bloom remarked to The Star when asked for his views.
“Bloom goes further in the article, misleading his readers and crucifying me. He publishes a second photo of me with a heading alleging that I made R5 000 000 in May 2015, when the land issue was apparently at its climax,” Mnisi said.
“He asked me about this and I said to him, in writing, that if he reads our Pam Golding website, it clearly says that that was my total sales for May 2015, not my commission. How disrespectful and dishonest can a journalist be to then proceed to write what he knows is not true,” Mnisi said.
“I told him that his reputation is more important than writing a story based on misleading information. It seems as if his reputation is not that important to him.”
The Star has investigated the origin of the false story that Mnisi received commission in the sale of the land.
“We, not surprisingly, found that in August 2015 Fred Daniel wrote to Hamish Stuart of Dubai World and started this false narrative.”
Mabuza is under investigation as the mastermind behind the land fraud in Badplaas. His wife Patience Mnisi, the Badplaas agent for Pam Golding, is behind the brokering of the Nkomazi farms this year (2015).
“I am not surprised,” Mphego responded. A court in Carolina previously found that Daniel is dishonest and abuses court processes to camouflage his own illegal activities.
“Daniel also previously admitted to placing false evidence before the High Court in Pretoria claiming that the Deputy President wanted to kill him.
“Daniel eventually withdrew that application claiming that he was misled by another lady to do it.
“Now he has Bloom at his beck-and-call. Very disappointing indeed,” Mphego concluded.
The Daily Maverick has also seemingly not escaped the wrath of corruption-buster Paul O’ Sullivan. On his website he refers to the Daily Maverick as an entity with links to the heart of the criminal underworld and state capture. It makes for a concerning read. His full report can be found on his website, forensics for justice.org
It’s unfortunate that to this day some media use women, the partners of politicians, to fight their politicised and race driven battles.
“I have a few ideas about why the Daily Maverick may want to bring down Mabuza, but it’s a shame to use family that is not standing for any election.”