R50m for ANC war room 'a figment'

Shaka Sisulu says he was "not involved in a smear campaign", but the so-called ANC "war room" waged "aerial battle" in last year's elections.

Sisulu was this week named as the man behind an alleged covert campaign to promote the ANC and discredit opposition parties in the run-up to the local government polls in August.

He said the "initiative . came out of our own knowledge of what is required" in what "was an extremely hostile media environment against the ANC", Sisulu said in a video interview aired on News24.

"We looked at ways that it can be dealt with."

The ANC has distanced itself from the campaign, but Sisulu said data collected by the team would be shared with his colleagues on the ruling party's official communications team.

Sisulu dismissed the R50-million budget for the campaign reported this week as the "figment of someone's imagination".

Knowledge of the war room emerged when public relations expert Sihle Bolani took the ANC to court on Tuesday, claiming that she was owed R2.2-million for work done by her company during the failed campaign.

Her case was dismissed as not being urgent.

Bolani claimed that nine companies, including Phat Joe's KTI Media, were in on the plan.

A project report that was submitted by Bolani to the ANC in November last year did not paint a rosy picture of the team's work.

She said there was insufficient space to house the team, and no access to newspapers or petty cash.

But the core of the problem, she said, was incompetence and unprofessionalism.

- TMG Digital