Dear Editor: Mail and Guardian
Your story published online with the headline “Soldiers do cry, Sisulu weeps after Cabinet ambush”, Mail and Guardian, 13 June 2012, is fiction, fabrication, untrue, written to be sensational and malicious. The so called “weeping after Cabinet ambush” only happened in your journalist’s imagination.
The Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu would like to state on record that she is and has always been humbled to serve the ANC in any position as deployed by the President of the Country. The Minister welcomes this new challenge and sees it as an opportunity to contribute further to improving the lives of all South Africans.
The reality is that the Minister had known of this matter for some time and was alone in her office when she received news of the fact that the announcement would be made on Tuesday at 16h00, conveyed to her by the President. We want to state it on record that contrary to the reported reaction by your publication, which is not true and reflects the highest level of fiction fabrication, the Minister is very humbled and honoured to again go and salvage a difficult department.
The whole day on Tuesday, the Minister was in the Chamber of the National Assembly and you can look up footage of the various debates. You will see her vibrant and participating in the Appropriation Bill discussions that started at 11h00 and continued for most of the afternoon.
It is sad and says a lot about the level of journalism when a senior journalist like Matuma Letsoalo can stoop so low to believe this kind of fiction and fabrication.
