Issued by: GCIS
4 August 2000
The Ministry of Communications categorically denies the misleading fictional story peddled by Ivor Powell in today's Mail & Guardian newspaper claiming that Communications Minister Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has been "dropped from a Cabinet sub-committee appointed to assess the fallout from the third cellular debacle on a package of oil and weapons deals apparently tied up with the cellphone licence".
Mr Powell purports to have inside information which places a question mark over the Minister's continued role in Government. He further alleges that a triumvirate made up of ministers Alec Erwin, Trevor Manuel and Jeff Radebe are assessing a so called crisis without the involvement of the Communications Minister.
As anyone with an extensive knowledge of Government, should know, ministers work in clusters. These include, social and welfare, economic, safety and security.
The Cabinet sub-committee the newspaper refers to is part of the economic cluster. It has already been briefed by the Minister of Communications extensively on the third cellular licence process and other issues within her portfolio. In fact all Cabinet clusters are in constant dialogue with each other. It is highly improbable that a Minister whose portfolio contributes billions of rands to the country's GDP could be dropped in the manner suggested by the newspaper.
In respect of allegations involving oil and weapons deals, the Minister is not aware of any such deals.
The Minister of Communications has always maintained that the Pretoria High Court order gagging her from making a decision on the recommendations by Satra was premature. She has argued that there were several options open to her. These were:
ISSUED: Brian Sokutu
Ministry Spokesperson
Cell: 083 - 327- 3229