Smear campaign against The Weekly

Earlier this week, Volksblad and Express newspapers – for the umpteenth time – launched a scathing attack on The Weekly and its publisher, Letlaka Media. Both these newspapers have printed unfounded, untrue and defamatory allegations about this newspaper and its publisher, Mr. Tumi Ntsele, over the past few years. We chose, out of professional courtesy, not fear, not to respond to their far-fetched stories.

However, the latest attack cannot go unchallenged. We have, therefore, taken extraordinary measures to set the record straight and give our readers and the public the true facts behind the allegations made by these newspapers this week under the headline: “Is Ace buying praise”.

Letlaka Media is the publisher of The Weekly newspaper. The company provides other services such as printing, branding, events management, design services and publications. We wish to place it on record that the company has contracts on printing and events management with the Free State provincial government. We share these transversal contracts with other companies in the province.

Therefore, the false notion created by these two newspapers that our company is a sole beneficiary of millions of Rands worth of government contracts is mischievous, to say the least. It is a deliberate attempt to tarnish the reputation of Letlaka Media and The Weekly.

We should also remind our readers that we have never shied away from publicly stating that The Weekly is a pro-development newspaper, which is broadly supportive of government programmes and activities. This newspaper has on several occasions criticised provincial government departments and municipalities where they have failed our people or compromised service delivery.

For Volksblad and Express to perpetuate a perception that our newspaper is an ‘Ace Magashule mouthpiece’ is not only disingenuous, but it also smacks of a deliberate plot to tarnish the good work the newspaper has done over the years.

We are also disappointed that opposition parties, especially the DA, have jumped onto “Bashing The Weekly” bandwagon, simply because of sour grapes against our newspaper.

They are bitter that this newspaper has not afforded them the platform to attack the ANC-led government like these so-called credible newspapers have done week in and week out. Our editorial policy is clear; we will not provide a platform in our newspaper to the DA, like the Volksblad and Express have done; to use it to discredit the provincial government.

We will demonstrate in detail later why both newspapers and the DA fear the existence of other strong newspapers in the province. In few weeks we will prove how the DA has attempted to raise money on behalf of one of the provincial newspapers as part of its plot to continue lashing out at government.

It is evident that Volksblad and Express are threatened and worried about the emergence of a strong black-owned newspaper, which is challenging their dominance of the media landscape in both the Free State and Northern Cape provinces. The attack on our newspaper is an attempt to bully and eliminate competition. We will not be intimidated or forced into submission to cease to exist by any newspaper.

For the record, the Free State provincial government is spending millions of Rands on advertising in several other media institutions. They include the SABC, e.tv, Free State News, Public Eye, Seipone and Hlasela TV, Sunday Times, The New Age and City Press and other national newspapers.

The total advertising expenditure paid to The Weekly does not even constitute five percent of the total government expenditure on communication. We are confident that the exact figures will be released to the public in the next few weeks.

Volksblad and Express have also benefitted immensely from the provincial government advertising since 1994. We call on both newspapers to come clean and tell the people of the Free State as to how much they have benefited from the provincial government advertising over the past 18 years and why they are so threatened when a strong black-owned newspaper also benefits from government advertising.

In the next few weeks, we will keep our readers and the people of the Free State informed about the extent of Volksblad and Express’s benefit from government advertising.

We, however, want to put it on record that they have been the major beneficiary of advertising from the provincial government. The attack by these two newspapers on The Weekly smacks of hypocrisy and fear that a popular strong black newspaper is eroding their monopoly in the market.

The nature of the relationship between these two newspapers and the DA is not a holy one. For years, the DA in the Free State has been using Volksblad and Express as platforms to attack the ANC-led provincial government. The people of the province are fully aware that Volksblad and Express have been pushing an anti-government campaign and serve as the DA’s propaganda machine.

The DA is now worried that, due to the dwindling influence of these newspapers, it no longer has a credible platform and voice to continue attacking black leaders who they have consistently portrayed as corrupt and incompetent.

Lastly, we are aware that both these publications have been running a campaign to taint the reputation of Premier Ace Magashule by associating him with The Weekly and Letlaka Media. We see nothing wrong with the provincial government’s support of our newspaper and other community newspapers.

The ANC government has taken a firm stance to support community media in this country. It is public knowledge that commercial media houses are not happy with this decision.

We are not ashamed as The Weekly to continue supporting the Magashule-led provincial government and baring the good work it is doing. This, of course, does not sit well with the forces of darkness who seek to portray black leaders in a negative light and take every opportunity to embarrass government and pursue their mission to promote the DA’s agenda of unseating the ANC government.

We should make it clear that The Weekly is not against white people and we vigorously believe in non-racialism; however, we have a duty to speak out against the vilification campaign against emerging black entrepreneurs.

The Weekly will not be deterred by the baseless and malicious attacks from reactionary newspapers such as Volksblad and Express, in its mission to inform the public; promote democracy and bring the people closer to their government.

We would like to reiterate that we have avoided attacking opposition newspapers and the DA, not because we fear them or had nothing to say. These consistent onslaughts on our newspaper compel The Weekly to defend its reputation, something we will not hesitate to do when provoked again in the future.