{"id":36348,"date":"2013-04-22T13:24:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T11:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=36348"},"modified":"2013-04-23T08:54:05","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T06:54:05","slug":"pules-spin-is-pitiful-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/36348\/pules-spin-is-pitiful-da\/","title":{"rendered":"Pule’s spin is pitiful: DA"},"content":{"rendered":"

DA<\/a> Shadow Minister of Communications, Marian Shinn<\/a> says that communications minister Dina Pule<\/a>\u2019s press briefing was a \u201cpitiful attempt at spin to evoke public sympathy\u201d ahead of hearings into her conduct by Parliament\u2019s ethics committee.<\/p>\n

Pule called a press briefing on Monday 22 April 2013 where she slated the damaging Sunday Times reports against her, arguing that it was part of a \u201csophisticated plot\u201d to blackmail her.<\/p>\n

According to Pule, the reason for the blackmail is the multi-billion Rand tender \u201cand related issues\u201d for the set-top boxes needed for South Africa\u2019s migration from analogue to digital television.<\/p>\n

Shinn, however, was not swayed in her opinion that Pule should step down. \u201cMy calls for Pule to be fired have been based on wider issues than the Sunday Times \u2013 although their investigations into her are damning enough,\u201d Shinn told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has failed in her portfolio to achieve anything of note and has been damaging to both Telkom<\/a> and the migration to DTT<\/a> with her meddling in the STB access control issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shinn said that she read nothing in the reports of the communications minister\u2019s media conference that would make her change her mind about Pule needing to be removed from office.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudging by the media comment I\u2019ve seen \u2013 she didn\u2019t persuade many of those who were there,\u201d added Shinn.<\/p>\n

Parliament is set to investigate the ethical conduct of Pule in a hearing this week. Media reports suggest that Parliament\u2019s ethics committee had to work through 2,000 pages of evidence against Pule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe committee has plenty of material to thoroughly evaluate the claims, and then there\u2019s the Public Protector who has spent many months investigating. This report is still awaited,\u201d said Shinn.<\/p>\n

More on Dina Pule<\/h3>\n

Dina Pule: I\u2019m being blackmailed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dina Pule to be hit with criminal charges<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pule to be investigated by Parliament<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

DoC calls for Sunday Times apology<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pule victim of political smear campaign: spokesperson<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

New revelations in Dina Pule saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Incompetence and corruption: the twin evils of Dina Pule<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DA Shadow Minister of Communications says that Dina Pule\u2019s press conference was a pitiful attempt at spin to evoke public sympathy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2061,1083,26,5663],"class_list":["post-36348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-democratic-alliance","tag-dina-pule","tag-headline","tag-mariann-shinn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36348"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36350,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36348\/revisions\/36350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}