SETTLING SCORES AND CLUTCHING AT STRAWS- DR EDNA MOLEWA RESPONDS TO CITY PRESS

ARTICLE MINISTER, LOVER WANTED ME DEAD

24 SEPTEMBER 2017

The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Dr Edna Molewa has noted the contents of
an article carried in todays edition of City Press newspaper.

It is an indictment of the paucity of public debate in South Africa when the

private lives of public figures become front page news.

This is a further indictment of the role of certain journalists as peddlers of

half-baked gossip instead of as purveyors of truth.

City Press uses as the source of its story the questionable testimony of the
Ministers disgruntled former husband: someone with no reputation to speak of;
who ardently seeks to gain a name for himself clutching to the coattails of
others.

The allegations made by Richard Molewa are wholly devoid of substance by his own
admission - in that he voluntarily submitted a withdrawal statement to the South
African Police Service (SAPS) in 2015.

Not only was the matter fully investigated by the SAPS, but the National
Directorate of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute. The case was closed,
and not quashed as the article tries to suggest.

As would be expected of rigorous journalists City Press should have interrogated

the timing of the claims made by Mr Molewa- coming two years after the case was
closed- only to resurface in the week of the finalization of a divorce between
the two parties.

The Minister views this attempt to discredit her as an attempt to settle scores;
and it is unfortunate that a third party has been drawn into the matter.

Dr Molewa has a longstanding and proud reputation serving her country as a

Cabinet Minister and as a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the
ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). Such a sideshow will not deter
her from continuing with the task with which she has been entrusted.