SIYABONGA SITHOLE
ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni has accused media outlets such as Daily Maverick, Amabhungane and Mail & Guardian of being funded by the (Central Intelligence Agency) CIA and used to curb Marxist thinking in their coverage of the country’s politics.
Yengeni was reacting to a recent Business Day article which alleged that newly elected KwaZulu-Natal chairperson, Siboniso Duma had indicated that they will be supporting President Cyril Ramaphosa for his second term in December at the 55th National ANC Elective Conference in Nasrec.
“Amabhungane, Mail and Guardian, Daily Maverick and others are bankrolled by the CIA to curb Marxist thinking.
“This is treasonous and deserves investigation by the Hawks,” Yengeni said on Twitter on Thursday.
Yengeni’s criticism comes a day after the newly elected KZN ANC leadership in slammed Business Day journalist, Hajra Omarjee whose recent article sought to imply that KZN chairperson Siboniso Duma and the entire Provincial leadership was in support of President Cyril Ramaphosa'second term as ANC president.
The party said it has noted an article which misled and grossly distorted facts about the ANC’s position on the succession debate.
“On Tuesday, the Business Day carried an article purported to have been authored by a seasoned political reporter, Hajra Omarjee, which is peddling falsehoods with the headline: ”ANC KwaZulu-Natal breaks silence on succession debate“.
“The article misquoted the newly-elected ANC Provincial chairperson, Cde Siboniso Duma, when articulating conference resolutions,” the ANCKZN said.
The party said, Omajree distorted Duma’s previous stance and support of president Ramaphosa’s 2017 campaign adding that Duma said a lot has changed since then.
ANCKZN says the newly elected provincial chairperson clearly articulated ANC’s position during his interview with Business Day as Duma indicated that in December, the province would vote for someone ready to implement radical economic policies.
“He (Duma) added that in December the ANCKZN wants the type of Leadership that will implement ANC resolutions, including Radical Socio-Economic Transformation, Building of State Bank and Expropriation of land without compensation.
“At no stage did the chairperson indicate that the leadership might as well support the current ANC President, Cde Cyril Ramaphosa,” the party said.
The ANC said it would not be distracted by a newspaper that is hell-bent in running a disinformation campaign against it adding that such action leaves a bitter taste in the journalism profession.
“We will continue to entertain hope that one day journalists will respect the truth and avoid misleading readers.
“The ANC leaders engage with the media because the movement had been in the forefront advocating for media freedom.
“We always encourage society to respect freedom of the media, but practitioners must not destroy that by publishing falsehoods,” the ANC in the province said.
The party has since called for the publication to retract its misleading article within the next seven days since its publication.
It says failure to retract the article will force the party to refer the matter to the Press Ombudsman.