A spin campaign spinning out of control

The ethics committee findings branding former communications minister Dina Pule a liar has drawn a line under one of the most bizarre spin campaigns in recent times.

Initially, Pule hunkered down, hoping the story would disappear, and refused to confirm or deny her relationship with Phosane Mngqibisa, the man who scored R6-million from a conference partly sponsored by her department.

In March, Pule held a press conference at the Hyatt hotel in Rosebank at taxpayers' expense and said the three journalists who wrote the story were controlled by unnamed "masters".

When asked for evidence, Pule said the Sunday Times needed none, so why did she?

This was one of many instances of Pule's lying. In another, she said she had set up a meeting with the Sunday Times to "apologise" for the press conference - then claimed she had never asked for such a meeting.

When we published proof that she had paid for the meeting room and sent her director-general, Themba Phiri, to make excuses for her no-show, Pule went quiet.

She then employed former journalist Wisani Ngobeni to reframe the debate as an issue about the Sunday Times, rather than her actions.

Ngobeni has since refrained from commenting on the matter , although he remains in the c ommunications department. "I work as chief director of communications and marketing. You know ... it's not always your choice and decision where I'm placed in government," he said this week.

Although he defended a minister who lied to the public, Ngobeni is adamant he never lied to the nation about Pule's relationship with Mngqibisa.

"I never ventured into that terrain. I never ventured into the merits or demerits of this matter. I'm a spokesperson of that department," he said.

But as part of his defence of Pule, Ngobeni lodged several complaints with the press ombudsman - whom he then condemned when his claims were rejected as spurious.

Clearly disparaging the media, Ngobeni started one complaint with "Once a journalist, always a journalist". Sure, except when you are hired specifically to spin a corrupt minister out of trouble, rather than address the real issues.

The Press Council slammed Ngobeni for abusing its complaint system, saying he had arrived at "illogical conclusions". Now, Ngobeni claims all he did was raise "issues of principle" - his chief gripe being that the Sunday Times provided certain documents to the ethics committee, which, he said, made this newspaper "player and referee".

In this case the ombudsman ruled that the consequences of the paper's actions could "only be overwhelmingly good".

When asked how he felt to have defended a minister who turned out to be a liar, he said: "I'm not a judge. ... I'm not going to judge the former minister. Every citizen should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise."

He said his job was to defend the institution of government.

Yet it will be hard to justify the fact that the minister he defended violated the constitution that civil servants are meant to protect.