Election-time advertising: What is Tina hiding?
4 March 2014
In a reply to a DA parliamentary question asking how much money will be spent on advertising by her department between January 2014 and 30 April 2014, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, has suspiciously refused to provide any details.
Indeed, her response to the key three components of the DA's question regarding (a) the costs (b) the medium to be used and (c) the message content, is highly revealing. Her responses are as follows:
"Money will be spent on a needs basis"
"Print and electronic media will be used on a needs basis"
"Messages will be developed according to subject matter"
Minister Joematt-Pettersson has once again shown complete contempt for parliamentary processes. More worryingly, it begs the question as to what the Minister is trying to hide. With her record in the department, this is ominous. She has already been implicated in:
The unlawful awarding of the R800 million vessel contract to Sekunjalo;
The politically motivated distribution of food parcels during worker strikes, to the tune of R10 million; and
The unauthorised funding of the Black Association of the Wine and Spirit Industry (BAWSI), which received R4 million. BAWSI was responsible for fueling the violent farm worker strikes last year.
I will now be writing to the Leader of Government Business, Kgalema Motlanthe to request that he immediately take steps to ensure that this crucial question is answered.
I will also consider submitting an application for this information in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) should the Minister not respond to my re-submitted question in ten working days.
The DA will not sit idly by while this Minister runs her department- using public money- under the veil of secrecy. We will continue to push for all these details as a matter of urgency.
South Africa deserves to know.
Statement issued by Annette Steyn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries, March 4 2014
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