Mantashe’s lies to the public continue to chop and change

1 November 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes new reports indicating that the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, has now retracted his claims with regards to having bribed two Sunday World journalists - following a meeting between himself, the Sunday World Editor, Makhudu Sefara and the South African National Editors’ Forum.

According to media reports earlier this week, Minister Mantashe acknowledged to the Sunday World newspaper that he paid two of its journalists R70 000 to make a story about his personal life “disappear”.

Mantashe has now stated that he lied about bribing these members of the media. Such a turn of events is almost comical in nature, and even if the Minister lied about the bribes, it is only an indication that he acted in an openly dishonest manner. It also begs the question, if Minister Mantashe has lied about this matter, what else has he lied about?

The DA remains firm in its stance that an investigation must be conducted by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests with regards to Mantashe’s conduct. The fact that the Minister is choosing to chop and change his words does not exempt him from the fact that allegations have been leveled against him and he still has a case to answer for. Where there is smoke there more often than not is a fire.

The DA also implores upon Sunday World to continue with its investigation into this matter.

As Members of the Executive, Ministers must be held to the highest ethical standards and must provide ethical leadership to the people they serve. By claiming that he was involved in bribery or lying about bribes, the Minister did not act “in accordance with the public trust placed in [him]”, nor did he “maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament” as per the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members' Interests of Parliament.

South Africans deserve conduct of the highest caliber from members of national government. Lying about admissions of guilt with regards to bribing members of the media is hardly indicative of Mantashe’s respect for the position he is in.

Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, 1 November 2019