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Earlier today, a story alleging former President Thabo Mbeki’s
authorship of a Congress of the People (COPE) policy document broke
out in the South African media.

The latest allegation, whose substance has been bandied around
previously, is based on US Government diplomatic cables recently
released by Wikileaks.

At 12h43 this afternoon, the South African News Agency, SAPA, a wire
service which provides news stories to subscribing media, published a
story headlined: “Mbeki, Cope link a 'misinterpretation'”, in which it
claimed that when contacted, “Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga
declined to comment.”

I am currently accompanying former President Mbeki in Sudan. At no
point did SAPA contact me about former President Mbeki’s alleged
authorship of a COPE document/s.

Journalists from other media institutions did, but not any from SAPA.

The claim that I declined to comment is therefore a complete fabrication.

As a matter of fact, before today, the only and first time that I was
contacted by a journalist about this matter was on January 6, 2011
when Media 24 Senior Investigative Reporter, Thanduxolo Jika, sent me
an enquiry by email.

His email, which I attach below read:

“I would like to get a comment from the former President Thabo Mbeki,
regarding some leaked wikileaks cables in Washington. The cables which
I had access to claim that Mbeki had a hand in drafting a six-page
policy document for Congress of the People (Cope) when it was formed.
According to the cables Smuts Gonyama met with Unisa' professor Derik
Kotze for his input on this six-page document. In the cables Kotze is
quoted saying that "Smuts made it very clear that it(six-page policy
document) came from Mbeki."

I would to find out if the reports are correct or not, and if indeed
the former president did draft the six-page document? Did the former
President have any influence on the policies of Cope as claimed?

Was Mbeki ever consulted by Gonyama on Cope's policies?”

I responded as follows:

“Former President Thabo Mbeki's Office has previously received
enquires resulting from and based on the recent Wikileaks cables. So
far, there has been no need to respond to these inquiries.

Mr. Mbeki's Office will therefore not comment on your enquiry except
to point out that former President Mbeki's membership of the African
National Congress is well known and his credentials within this
context speak for themselves”.

No other journalist contacted me since until today.

I have enclosed Thanduxolo Jika’s correspondence below this statement
for ease of reference.

It is most unfortunate that in its enthusiasm to tell a story, SAPA
elected to ignore the basic journalistic rule of affording an affected
party the opportunity to comment and therefore become party to the
communication of falsehoods that might well have other objectives in
mind.

Journalists are supposed to be discerning and therefore suspicious of
their sources and their intentions, however benign these might appear
to be. To paraphrase a famous African writer, the written word ought
to be to journalists, what fingerprints are to police people.