Mpofu denies anti-Zuma bias

2008-02-26 18:39

Cape Town - ANC MPs grilled SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu on Tuesday over the public broadcaster's perceived bias against the party's president Jacob Zuma.

Mpofu, appearing before the portfolio committee on communication, was asked why Zuma's victory speech at the Polokwane conference of the African National Congress was "not transmitted properly".

"People were complaining that they could not hear what the ANC president was saying on television - can you explain what the problem was?" MP Lumka Yengeni asked.

Kgomotso Nxumalo, another ANC MP, asked Mpofu to comment on reports that he had called Zuma a monkey and threatened to resign from the public broadcaster if Zuma was elected the party's president in Polokwane.

Mpofu denied the public broadcaster was waging a campaign against Zuma.

He said technical glitches were to blame for the poor transmission of Zuma's victory speech.

"I gave an explanation to the leaders of the party concerned, and they have accepted."

He dismissed as a "complete fabrication", reports that he had called Zuma a "monkey" and threatened to resign should Zuma become ANC president.

Mpofu also distanced himself from racist remarks attributed to him in political analyst Xolela Mangcu's recent book - To the Brink: The State of Democracy in SA.

Dismissing Mangcu as a "pseudo intellectual", Mpofu said the author had mistranslated his remarks which he had made in isizulu.

- SAPA