Zuma's spin doctor in 'bribery scandal'

ByaseL · 2009-07-10T12:08:06+00:00

Former City Press editor Vusi Mona, whose appointment as acting communications head in the presidency was announced this week, is mired in a bribery scandal playing out in an Mpumalanga court. Mona is controversial for publishing spying allegations against former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and for allegedly breaking the off-the-record rule to reveal details of a briefing by Ngcuka regarding then-deputy president Jacob Zuma. Monas actions against Ngcuka may have recommended him to his new boss, but his appointment while the Mpumalanga matter remains unresolved flies in the face of Zumas recurrent anti-corruption rhetoric. Mona is implicated in the payment of substantial kickbacks to Stanley Soko, then-director general of Mpumalanga, and Ernest Khoza, then-chief executive of the Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation, six years ago. The alleged payments followed the provincial governments 2003 award of a R32-million public relations contract to a consortium in which Mona had an interest. Soko and Khoza are currently on trial in the Nelspruit Regional Court. They have pleaded not guilty to charges including corruption and fraud. Although Mona has not been charged, his alleged role in the bribery scheme has been detailed in the charge sheet against Soko and Khoza and in testimony by Moss Mashamaite, Monas partner in the public relations venture. The presidency this week said that Mona denied he was part of any bribery or chain of events leading to the alleged bribery. Early controversy Monas rise in journalism was meteoric. The rookie founding editor of Mail & Guardian sister publication the Teacher in 1996, he was appointed City Press editor in 2000. He first courted controversy after Ngcuka briefed editors in July 2003 about criminal investigations into Zuma and Mac Maharaj, allegedly saying he would convict Zuma in the court of public opinion. Mona circulated details although the briefing was allegedly off the record. Six weeks later Mona published a story, later the subject of the Hefer Commission of Inquiry, saying Ngcuka had probably been an apartheid spy. The story was brought to City Press by then-reporter Ranjeni Munusamy, whose own publication, the Sunday Times, had refused to run it.

Thread starter ByaseL
Start date Jul 10, 2009

ByaseL

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Zuma's spin doctor in 'bribery scandal'

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