Tito gets backlash for having Ranjeni Munusamy on budget speech panel
- Tito Mboweni recently shared a picture of the people who are going to be working on the budget speech with him
- Soon thereafter he received backlash for the decision to put the journalist accused of corruption, Ranjeni Munsamy on the panel
- Twitter users shared their frustration and thoughts in the comment section
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Finance Minister Tito Mboweni recently received a plethora of backlash after he shared a picture on his Twitter of the people he would be working with while drafting the South African budget speech.
Among the faces on the screenshot of the virtual meeting is that of Ranjeni Munusamy, the former Tiso Blackstar journalist who has been accused by a Hawks officer Kobus Roelofse of receiving money during an alleged corruption scandal.
Munusamy has not been cleared of any of the allegations and refused to attend the Zondo Commission to defend herself after the allegation about the money she received was made at the commission in 2019.
Her ties with the ANC date back to 2007 when she managed the social media page called Friends of Zuma, a page that defended Jacob Zuma and once claimed that the media were working against the former president.
Despite all of this, Munusamy has found herself appointed in the Ministry of Finance as a community outreach officer. She also forms part of the group of people who will be working on the national budget speech, much to the dismay of unimpressed South Africans.
@phakxx wrote:
"Ranjeni Munusamy has not been cleared of allegations of corruption. She refused to go to Zondo Commission to defend herself. In spite of this you, @tito_mboweni hired her to write the budget speech."
@matlhodi_malope wrote:
"I remember how @RanjeniM used City Press as a platform to do PR for ntate Jacob Zuma while earning a salary as a journalist. She wrote articles that fuelled divisions in @MYANC. How the then editor did not see through it all still baffles me to this day."
Source: Twitter
Briefly.co.za previously reported how Ranjeni Munusamy had been implicated at the state capture inquiry, this time by Colonel Dhanajaya Naidoo. The former crime intelligence member alleged that he had met with the top Tiso Blackstar journalist three times, once accompanying her to have her vehicle serviced.
The service, which included new tyres, fixing a faulty radio and even repairing a damaged seat, had been funded by 'Company x'. The Citizen reports that 'Company x' was used by crime intelligence and the witness claimed that it would foot the bill for the New World Motors repair work.
New24 reports that Naidoo had claimed journalists were paid by intelligence to spin stories. Naidoo told the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture as it delved into alleged looting within the police's intelligence unit:
"My belief that journalists were being used by crime intelligence to plant stories in the media, I have knowledge of three instances were journalists were paid or used by crime intelligence."
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Source: Briefly News
