 |
| Mr. Siyabonga Cwele |
The South African government has warned that media outlets publishing photographs of President Jacob Zuma's house face prosecution.
State
security minister Siyabonga Cwele said: "No one, including those in the
media, are allowed to take images and publicise images."
The ban
on pictures follows a long-running controversy over Zuma's residence in
Nkandla, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is a huge compound, with a
mini-football pitch, gym, helicopter pads, a tuck-shop for one of
Zuma's four wives and a pen for livestock.
A scandal erupted when
it was discovered that more than £12m of state funds was used to
refurbish the property, prompting many media outlets to publish aerial
shots of the property.
Ministers have defended the expense as
necessary for "security upgrades" and have justified the ban on pictures
by invoking the 1980 National Key Points Act, which prohibits publicity
for "installations of strategic importance."
The South African
National Editors Forum (Sanef) says the act is being misused. It issued a
statement saying "ministers are using security laws to avoid accounting
to the public on the Nkandla upgrades."
Sanef's chairman,
Mpumelelo Mkhabela, said ministers were threatening to prosecute
journalists for publishing public interest information.
"There's an assumption that the media has somehow put the president's security at risk, which is not true," he said.
 |
| President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead pictured in October 2012 (Picture: Gallo Images). |
No comments:
Post a Comment