The SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) on Tuesday added City Press journalist Sizwe SamaYende to a list of supposed “traitors” for reporting critically on Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza. SamaYende is currently under 24-hour protection after narrowly evading a gunman who ambushed the award-winning journalist at his (Nelspruit) home on Friday night. “SamaYende and Mzilikazi wa Afrika are committing high treason by fabricating stories that destabilise the province. They are traitors. Premier Mabuza cannot focus on governing, because he must now focus on answering these smear campaigns that they publish,” explains Sanco Mpumalanga treasurer and spokesman, Raymond Makamo.
Wa Afrika was arrested by a large Hawks police task-team outside his Sunday Times office last week Wednesday, and was charged with fraud, forgery and uttering (circulating fraudulent items) during a brief court appearance on Friday. The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that an investigating officer has admitted the arrest had been politically motivated. “It is not the arrests that are political – it is they, the journalists, who are in the pockets of political masters, who are trying to have Premier Mabuza removed from office,” insists Makamo.
Sanco Mpumalanga openly campaigns on behalf of Mabuza, including championing him during the run-up to the fiercely contested 2008 provincial conference of the African National Congress where Mabuza was elected chairman. “We know that they have meetings where they plot what they are going to write. Wa Afrika must tell the world who he met with at Protea Hotel on February 3. And, SamaYende must tell us why he meets with sources at Galitos [restaurant] in Nelspruit,” says Makamo. When quizzed how he knew about the supposed meetings, Makamo would only say that “reliable sources” kept the “true comrades” briefed on “troublemakers”.
Premier Mabuza publicly boasted earlier this year that he receives weekly classified intelligence briefings on individuals deemed to be a threat to his administration. Mabuza implied at the time that journalists and civil society critics might be monitored for the reports, but his spokesman Mabutho Sithole has refused over the past week to confirm or deny whether journalists are in fact under surveillance.
Hawks spokesman Musa Zondi also declines to say whether the Wa Afrika arrest, for his as yet unclear role in circulating a supposedly fraudulent resignation letter in Mabuza’s name, was based on intelligence data. “Claims that I am a traitor, or in the pay of some political faction or plot, are absolute hogwash. I write what I see, based on facts, and my reporting is open for scrutiny by anyone - including the courts,” said SamaYende in response on Tuesday. “I’m not certain whether there is a link between these claims and the attack on me at the weekend, but it certainly gives the police something to work on.”
Wa Afrika was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
Zondi has meanwhile confirmed that investigators have seized reporter notebooks and research files dating back 11 years – despite Wa Afrika’s alleged crime only being committed in July this year. The notebooks, which include details of confidential sources and whistleblowers, have been handed over to Mpumalanga-based police for “analysis”.
The SA Communist Party (SACP) in Mpumalanga on Tuesday branded the arrest and seizure of research material as intimidation and a possible abuse of state power. “We note with alarm [and] shock, the dramatic Hollywood-style arrest of a journalist -- in order to instil fear, not only to journalists but to whoever exposes corruption in our province. We want to re-iterate our resolve to intensify our campaign and struggle against corruption, no amount of intimidation will deter us,” says SACP provincial spokesman, Lesetja Dikgale.
Dikgale also cautioned local journalists, however, to avoid being used as pawns in factional politics and to ensure that they verified the authenticity of leaked documents.
Source: Capital
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