Muthambi must come clean on New Age adverts
1 March 2015
It is reported in City Press today that Minister Faith Muthambi did spend R 1.6 million on a single set of advertisements in The New Age, and that this expenditure did not go through the proper approval processes (see here).
This follows similar allegations in the Mail & Guardian on 6 February - allegations that have been flatly denied by Communications Director-General, Donald Liphoko.
In the Communications Portfolio Committee meeting of 17 February, I asked Mr Liphoko whether R 1.6 million had been spent on a single advert in The New Age, without sign off by the Director-General. He replied that the allegations were false.
Today's City Press report suggests that the allegations are not going away.
I will therefore be submitting questions in Parliament to determine:
1. The full expenditure on advertisements in The New Age since Minister Muthambi assumed office in May last year; and
2. Who approved the expenditure of each advert and proof thereof.
There is clearly a tendency amongst some senior figures in the Department of Communications to throw money at The New Age.
In January the DA revealed that, in the previous financial year, the Department of Communications spent R 10.2 million or 11% of its total print advertising budget on The New Age. This was despite the paper's small readership of 153 000 people. By comparison, significantly less (R 7.8 million) was spent on the Daily Sun, for example, which has a huge readership of 5.3 million people.
The only possible explanation for government's disproportionate advertising expenditure on The New Age is President Zuma's close relationship with the newspaper's owners, the Gupta family.
Such expenditure is an abuse of public money for political purposes. The DA will not stop until it has fully exposed the practice of propping up media outlets that guarantee favourable coverage to the President and his allies.
Statement issued by Gavin Davis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, March 1 2015
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