What News24 did not report

Response to query for information from Jan Gerber of News24

Dear Jan

In response to your questions, please note the following: 

1. Professor Sipho Seepe and I submitted information to the Section 194 Committee, as per the Committee’s  request. As you are well aware you can request and obtain this information from the Commission’s secretariat. 

2. In your email request for information to me on 26 September 2022, you made reference to a media statement (Statement of Facts) issued by Professor Seepe and I on 11 September following  inaccurate, misleading and potentially defamatory media reports and social media posts. 

3. This statement clearly sets out that in mid-2019, for a period of 3 MONTHS, we provided adhoc, part time strategic communication related services to Advocate Paul Ngobeni, who was assisting Seanego Attorneys, on matters of legal services and opinion for the Office of the Public Protector. 

4. We are both highly accomplished professionals with a right, like any other citizen, to offer our expertise and services.

5. The selective reporting which suggests that there was something untoward about this short term THREE MONTH contract appears to be aimed at ensuring that the singular narrative on the Public Protector,  in which the media is so invested, is not challenged. 

6. Both Professor Seepe and I have been actively involved in and written extensively on issues of social justice for many years, and we individually and mutually reject the imposition of a singular narrative. 

7. No services were provided beyond this three-month period and reports that ignore this fact are misleading and mischievous. 

8. I have personally written several articles and social media posts and commentated on the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, since 2017 when she was appointed, after being the choice candidate of Parliament by all parties barring the DA, a party opposed to her appointment and COPE, which abstained to vote.

9. I have over the years been extremely impressed by Advocate Mkhwebane’s steadfast commitment to serving the ordinary people of South Africa. 

10. I have also been impressed at her countless achievements including high case resolution, extensive national road shows to educate and inform communities of the work of the Public Protector, and her three clean audits. 

11. I intend to continue writing and commentating, both locally and internationally, on the Public Protector and any other individual or organisation who I believe is doing admirable work on issues of justice and transformation and who I believe is being unfairly and unjustly villanised by the media. 

12. Your final question which reads as follows, “were you involved in any way mobilising support for Public Protector (Advocate) Busisiwe Mkhwebane from civil society organisations, in particular Black Land First, in mid-2019”, is extremely problematic. The inherent suggestion that I as a white person could influence senior black political leaders, black organisations, top black Advocates, and  black activists, on matters or injustice, is extremely insulting to such individuals and organisations.  

13. Many black individuals and black organisations and black activists have expressed their support for Advocate Mkhwebane. This includes local, Continental and intentional organisations, bodies and individuals. 

14. The concept of justice and injustice is not something that needs to be brought to the attention of black South Africans by a white person or journalist for injustice is the daily lot of black South Africans. 

15. The unfairness of reporting on the Public Protector does not need to be penned by either you or myself for it be widely seen by ordinary black South Africans, as well as by those who are committed to social justice in and beyond South Africa. 

16. The mainstream media fixation on villanising Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, for reasons that have little to do with her competence,  is something I will continue to speak out about without fear or favour.

kind regards

Kim