In a hastily arranged press conference in Rosebank on 22 April, Minister of Communications Dina Pule lashed out not only at the Sunday Times and specific journalists who work for the newspaper, but also at those with “business and political interests related to the multi-billion rand set-top-box tender and related issues” as being complicit in a blackmail plot against her.
The backlash came in the wake of an article printed in the 21 April edition of the Sunday Times – the latest in a series of articles attacking Pule’s credibility and accusing her of corruption in an ever more colourful variety of forms. Proclaiming that “the mud throwers’ hands are not always clean”, she proceeded to scoop up a handful of her own and lob it in the direction of her accusers.
In addition to denying the allegations against her, Pule made the startling revelation that these articles have all been part of a sustained blackmail plot by the journalists in question, in cahoots with 'their handlers' whom she says are representatives of prominent organisations which are tendering for business relating to the manufacture of the set-top boxes required to facilitate South Africa’s transition from analog to digital television broadcast signals. When asked, Pule refused to name these companies or their representatives.
The goal of the alleged blackmail, Pule claimed, was to force her to make decisions in favour of these unnamed organisations, against the threat of creating sufficient uproar through a Sunday Times backed smear campaign as to make her position untenable.
Pule is due to appear before a Parliament ethics committee on the 2nd and 3rd of May.
Technical resource centre for smart cities
News
Mouser’s infrastructure and smart cities content hub features comprehensive articles, blogs, eBooks, and products from Mouser’s technical team and trusted manufacturing partners.
Read more...From the editor's desk: Trekkie on my mind Technews Publishing
Editor's Choice
This year’s exciting announcement was in the non-terrestrial network sector with many NTN chips being released, promising communications from anywhere on Earth.
Read more...UFS Flash named Best in Show EBV Electrolink
News
KIOXIA Europe GmbH was named as winner in the Memory & Storage category of the Embedded Computing Design (ECD) electronica Best in Show Awards at the recently held electronica 2024.
Read more...Trina Storage ranked in top 10
News
Amidst the global energy storage market, Trina Storage has once again earned recognition from authoritative institutions with its outstanding innovation capabilities and global layout.
Read more...2025 outlook for DRAM is poor
News
According to TrendForce, weak demand outlook and rising inventory and supply forecast to pressure DRAM prices down for 2025.
Read more...IO Ninja debugging tool RF Design
News
Tibbo has released a major update to IO Ninja, its versatile communications debugging tool for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Read more...Young SA robotics team takes world title
News
In a demonstration of innovation and teamwork, Texpand, a South African youth robotics team based in Cape Town, recently made history by winning the 2024 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championships.
Read more...From the editor's desk: A brave new world Technews Publishing
News
The technology Tesla currently uses in its cars from the batteries, power electronics, controllers, through to the mechanics, gearboxes, and the AI inference computer and software have are incorporated in the development of Optimus, allowing the development of the robot to gain impressive features in a relatively short time span.