The former Prasa acting CEO, Collins Letsoalo has repeated his threat to sue the Sunday Times for publishing an article last year about his salary hike that was allegedly based on an Auditor-General’s report.
The paper retracted the article, and published an apology on Sunday, after the Auditor-General revealed that no such report existed.
Letsoalo was dismissed by the Prasa board in February last year after the Sunday Times reported that he had irregularly awarded himself a 350% salary increase the previous year.
Letsoalo says he is considering court action against Prasa, the Democratic Alliance (DA) which called on him to pay back the money, the reporter and the newspaper.
“At the time, I had said to them that there’s no truth to this, but Sunday Times went on to print this article, it was a front page. I then received a call from a guy called Caiphus Skhosana who is a journalist at Sunday Times. I told him all the information, but he proceeded to print without confirming. He used a forged AG report to be able to do that that. I’m going for the newspaper, because they hired him, plus also I’m going for Popo Molefe… he came to the studio and told people that I stole money. So I’m going for him as well.”
Letsoalo is also concerned that it’s apparently possible to produce a fake report by the Auditor-General’s office, one of the Chapter Nine institutions designed to ensure good governance.
“It looks like the Chapter Nine institution’s reports can be forged for people to actually malign people. So I’m not going to accept an apology – just to write and say we are sorry is not enough.”
SABC News have invited The Sunday Times and other parties mentioned in the interview to give their side of the story. Watch interview below:
