LETTER: Lindiwe Sisulu is no ‘reject’
The minister has accomplished much and deserves respect rather than denigration
Business Day’s editorial opinion on the changes to the cabinet cannot be left unchallenged as people might see it as the truth (“Tourism needs capable fighter, not reluctant ministerial reject”, August 11). The headline makes several unfounded and false allegations, which I believe is against the press code, and refers to new tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu as a “ministerial reject”, further denigrating her by calling her a “member of ANC royalty”, an insult to a woman who is a leader in the governing party in her own right.
Sisulu was imprisoned at the age of six, went into exile, fought in the trenches with Umkhonto we Sizwe and is an MK commander. She is a member of the ANC’s national executive and national working committees, as elected by party delegates in 2017. Her father, mother, brothers and sisters together served more than 60 years in prison during apartheid. She is a woman leader in her own right and does not need Business Day to approve her political credentials.
Such unprofessional journalism born from political bias is not what this country needs now. Sisulu finds this deplorable, since she is occupied doing her work and fulfilling her ascribed role as expected. She has served in several portfolios and has done so to the best of her ability, fighting corruption in the process. When she was removed from the water & sanitation portfolio last week she had just been informed two people linked to senior politicians in the Eastern Cape were to be arrested soon, and almost all water boards had received clean audit opinions from the auditor-general. A few officials in that department now face both criminal and internal charges, and several Special Investigating Unit proclamations have been signed due to Sisulu’s persistence in the fight against corruption.
This is the person Business Day refers to as a ministerial reject. Sisulu has never been afraid of constructive criticism, but criticism laced with disrespect is not acceptable.
Mpumzi Zuzile
Spokesperson to tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an e-mail with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by e-mail to letters@businesslive.co.za. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.