DA wants to have the only voice - ANCYL
2013-01-31 21:50
Johannesburg - Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is attacking the New Age (TNA) because she wants her party to be only one talking in the media, the ANC Youth League said on Thursday.
"Unlike the ANC, we don’t believe that the DA is opposed to an informed citizenry but rather the DA is opposed to a citizenry that is informed by the African National Congress, preferring that only the DA communicate to the people of this country," said ANCYL spokesperson Khusela Sangoni-Khawe.
She said that since the days when Zille was mayor of Cape Town she had a radio show on Heart P4 radio station in Cape Town.
The show still aired every Monday and Zille continued to use the platform to drive "DA propaganda", said Sangoni-Khawe.
Last week Zille pulled out of the New Age Business Breakfast following reports that the event was funded with public money.
The City Press had earlier reported that some of the biggest state-owned companies were paying millions of rands to bankroll the business breakfasts hosted by the Gupta family.
The Guptas own Sahara and Atul Gupta is the company's managing director.
TNA is owned by the Guptas, who are believed to have ties to President Jacob Zuma. On Wednesday, Zille called for a commission of inquiry to probe funding of TNA.
She said the newspaper was almost entirely funded with taxpayers' money, and claimed 77% of its advertising revenue came from national and provincial government departments, and state entities.
She drew parallels with the apartheid-era scandal involving The Citizen, in which state money was used to set up and fund the newspaper.
The ANCYL said it had become a norm for the DA to criticise the ruling party while it was also guilty of the same bahaviour.
The DA had confirmed receiving R400 000 donation from the Guptas.
- SAPA
