SABC Chairperson Ms Ellen Tshabalala Responds To Sunday Sun Report

Just in. In a strongly worded statement I have just received from the SABC, The Chairperson of the South African Broadcasting Corporation Board (SABC), Ms. Ellen Tshabalala has responded to the article published on Sunday Sun on Sunday that she is the President's "Nyatsi". 

The statement calls the report by the Sunday tabloid paper "malicious and misleading". In reposding to the publication, Ms Tshabalala has responded as follows:

“I feel violated that a newspaper can go to such lengths to carry news without the supporting facts, even though I told the journalist that there is no basis to the story. 

During the time of dealing with violence and abuse of women, I find this as a violent attack on my integrity as a woman and a mother.  It is also an onslaught on the public broadcaster that I chair.  I want to put it categorically that this has no basis in fact, and it is meant to hurt, undermine me, the SABC as well the office of The Presidency. 

It also characterises how the print media will stoop to such low levels to misinform and misrepresent facts.  

It is clear that this has become a personal attack on me, and that there is another agenda that seeks to derail me from executing my duties as the Chairperson of the SABC. 

I am currently taking advice on how to respond appropriately from my attorneys and reserve my rights as such”.

On Sunday the Sunday Sun newspaper reported that President Jacob Zuma and controversial SABC chairperson Ellen Tshabalala have been in an intimate relationship for years. Ms. 

Tshabalala has come under criticism recently for allegedly faking various aspects of her curriculum vitae.

In playing off of Ms Tshabalala's current headline grabbing situation, the newspaper stated:

"ELLEN TSHABALALA'S qualifications as SABC board chairwoman have been questioned. But Sunday Sun can now reveal that she did graduate . . . 

FROM THE JACOB ZUMA SCHOOL OF LOVE! 

Ellen and the "father of the nation" have allegedly been an item for years. And this well-kept secret has become the subject of gossip in the corridors of power, at Luthuli House and Parliament."