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THAT Dina Pule, shes a card, isnt she? Its a relief to know that our communications minister loves a good conspiracy, involving covert companies, hidden agendas and spies. We havent had one of those since, well, Ms Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Well, there was good old Thabo, with his pharmaceutical companies peddling poison theories, but hey, thats Thabo.

It turns out that, according to Pule, the reason this newspaper took her to task for the fact that her alleged boyfriend Phosane Mngqibisa made millions from things like the ICT Indaba, which her department helped organise, wasnt because we are investigating an issue in the public interest.

No, rather it is because a cabal of shady businessmen had ordered it, our handlers if you will, and they had somehow paid off all the journalists to do their bidding in the hope of winning tenders from Ms Pules department. Quite how this would work, well, no-one is any the wiser.

She was at it again at the New Age business breakfast this week, blaming the SABC and e.tv (such likely bedfellows, after all) for conspiring to delay the migration to digital television.

But again, she got the facts all mangled: it was actually Dina who intervened in the process and then, when she lost the case in court to e.tv, held up the process by threatening to appeal. Eventually, she quietly dropped that appeal.

But no matter, the message is clear: everyone else is responsible for what is going on but her.

This was the theme when Dina held a press conference this week. Not, as you might expect, to debunk the claims of nepotism against her. No, the goal was simply to launch an ad hominem attack on the journalists, me included.

My sin? Apparently I have close friends at telecoms companies, and they have friends who have business interests. Now, I dont have close friends at these firms, but I, like any journalist, do contact people from these companies to get the facts straight when writing a story.

For Pule, this sort of personal attack was an interesting gambit, especially if you reflect on the individuals who have launched personal attacks on journalists in the past, rather than addressing the issues.

There was Tigon, a company that went belly-up in 2002 after its CEO Gary Porritt was arrested for fraud. Porritts arrest was largely thanks to a series of articles run by the late, great financial journalist Deon Basson. At the time, Tigon saw fit to send out newsletters drawing attention to Bassons battle with bi-polar disorder, one entitled Deon Basson luminary or loony? Basson has since passed on, after a battle with Sharemax, but we all know who won that round.

Continued here:
LAST WORD: Everyone is to blame for the mess but Pule