R140mil website used R400 ‘wordpress' template 

 
5 March 2013

Note to Editors: DA Free State Leader Patricia Kopane will deliver this members statement in Parliament at 2pm this afternoon.

The DA wants this House to note today the R140 million website Premier Ace Magashule built was based on a R400 'wordpress' template.

These templates are freely available online. They are used to build websites cheaply and easily.

In my hand I have a screengrab of a R400 wordpress website. In my other hand is a picture of the R140 million wordpress Free State Government website.

Can you spot the difference? Neither can I.

Honourable Speaker, the people of the Free State want to know where the other R139 999 600 went. They want  to know why it could not have been used to house the homeless and treat the sick.

What a coincidence that the same company - the Letlaka Group - benefits from millions of Free State government advertising that is regularly pumped into The Weekly, a propaganda newspaper established to boost the profile of the Premier.

Every Friday The Weekly posters lining the streets of Mangaung sing the praises of Premier Magashule.

Behind the scenes Mr Tumi Ntsebe, who owns Letlaka and runs The Weekly, boasts that the Premier has made him rich through government tenders.

He gets another R4 million just to do newsletters for the legislature. The person who gave Mr Ntsebe that contract is none other than Elzabe Rockman who happens to be the DG in the Premier's Office.

Premier Magashule is making ANC-connected companies like Letlaka rich.

These companies sell the Premier's propaganda in exchange for lucrative government contracts.

The Democratic Alliance has asked the Auditor General to investigate these contracts.

We will not stop until the full truth is told about the propaganda network Premier Magashule is running in the Free State.

Issued by Patricia Kopane, DA Leader in the Free State, March 5 2013

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