Communications minister Faith Muthambi
The Democratic Alliance on Monday said it wants answers from communications minister Faith Muthambi on questions related to the Gupta family.
These questions‚ the party said‚ will be asked if Muthambi is summoned to give a “full briefing on recent developments at the public broadcaster”.
First up will be a query about apparent political meddling that led to the canning of the “On the Record with Vuyo Mvoko” show‚ which‚ the DA said‚ “would have…portrayed the African National Congress (ANC) and President Jacob Zuma in a ‘negative light’ ”.
The cancellation came ahead of a punted “live show on state capture and the Guptas”‚ and was announced in a Twitter post by Mvoko – a contributing editor at SABC News – on Thursday.
vuyo mvoko @vuyo_mvoko tweeted: “Regret to announce that there’ll b no #OnTheRecord on #sabcnews tonight. #OTR_404 is no more. Thanks 4 support. Apologies for abrupt end.”
“The DA has been reliably informed that it is indeed correct that the show was pulled off air following Mvoko’s insistence on doing his job‚ and discussing on his show what was the most important story in the news cycle at the time‚” the party said.
It added that “Mvoko had angered SABC bosses and Luthuli House when he was ‘too tough’ on North West ANC chairperson and premier‚ Supra Mahumapelo a known close ally of President Zuma‚ during an interview earlier in the week”.
The DA also said it had “been informed that after the Vytjie Mentor story broke on Radio Sonder Grense last week‚ SABC bosses were furious that RSG had broken the story and had initially refused for the story to be aired on other SABC radio stations”.
Mentor‚ a former ANC MP‚ revealed last week that she had been with Zuma in the Guptas’ Saxonwold home when the politically connected family allegedly offered her the post of public enterprises minister.
The DA said it would also be seeking answers on allegations about a “directive for the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and government departments to direct their ad spend to the The New Age”.
The comes after the former head of the GCIS‚ Themba Maseko‚ told the Sunday Times that‚ six years ago‚ he was ordered by a member of the Gupta family to divert government advertising to The New Age.
The DA said that Muthambi had previously‚ in a reply to a parliamentary question‚ stated that “no directive was received to spend more money on The New Age than other newspapers”‚ but Maseko’s comment appeared to contradict this.
“Muthambi needs to come clean on this‚” the party said.
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