Bennett attacks SUNDAY editor

MBABANE – Walter Bennett says the first person he will report to the Media Complaints Commission (MCC) is Innocent Maphalala, the Times SUNDAY editor.

The auctioneer is unhappy that this newspaper reported two articles about him in last week’s edition.

One of these was on his dismissal from the MTN Board of directors while the other was about the court matter in which Clement Dlamini, Minister of Agriculture, wants an application filed by Bennett dismissed.

Bennett was chairman of the Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (SWADE) board of directors which was disbanded by Dlamini on the recommendation of a Commission of Enquiry.

Bennett wants certain findings of the commission set aside but the minister says were the businessman to be granted this prayer, he (minister) would be forced to reinstate him.

"This would adversely affect the rights of the incumbent chairman of the board," says the minister in his answering affidavit.

Bennett called Maphalala early this week, requesting space to respond to the two issues.

He and the editor agreed that reporters would be sent to his office to interview him and listen to his concerns.

This eventually happened on Thursday.

However, instead of responding to the articles, the auctioneer launched an attack against the editor, accusing him of being corrupt.

He said he had already written a letter he would submit to newspaper management in connection with certain allegations that cannot be repeated here because of their defamatory nature.

An incensed Bennett said he wanted Maphalala investigated.

"We are aware that he is building a very big and expensive ho-use. Where did he get the money to build that house? He will use candles to light it up," he said.

He said his battle with the Times SUNDAY editor dated ages ago when Maphalala was still an ordinary reporter.

Worth noting, however, is that this newspaper has, since Maphalala took over, published several articles that favoured Bennett. One of these was a few weeks ago, when he was complaining that wild animals were devouring his livestock at his farm in Mhlumeni in the Lubombo region.

In this story, Bennett was calling for help because the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs had failed to help him, instead referring him to the King’s Office. He says over the years, he has been monitoring Mapha-lala’s execution of duties as a journalist. Bennett also said to prove that the editor had an agenda against him, in last week’s publication the newspaper published two stories which he believes were unnecessary and uncalled for. One of these articles was headlined ‘Clement doesn’t want to reinstate Bennett.’

He said this article was biased and unfair to him because he never at any point told the minister that he wanted to return to Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (SWADE) board.

"I am not a member of the kindergarten. I regard the whole article as an insult to me," he said.

However, this article actually repeated what Minister Clement Dlamini had said in his court papers, in direct response to an application filed by Bennett. No extra words were added.

He said what further works his temper when reading the story is that he was not called for comment by the newspaper.

"Had they called me, I would have told them that I did not tell Clement I wanted to return to SWADE and there was never a point where I tried to influence him on his decisions as the minister responsible for the parast-atal," he said. It is common knowledge that people implicated in court matters are not called for comment because such matters are still sub judice.

He also complained about an article on the same paper which was headlined ‘Why Bennett and Winnie were fired.’

"This story was also not fair to me in that this thing happened a long time ago. Why is it being brought back now and why is the whole issue a matter of public interest now," he said.

Bennett and Winnie Maga-gula were dismissed as representatives of the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation in the MTN Board of Directors only in mid-June 2011.

The other members, whose names were listed, are Nokut-hula Mthembu, Bonginkhosi Ndlovu and Moses Zungu.

He also said he does not understand why whenever stories relevant to their relinquishing of board posts at MTN are written; the Editor always picks ‘Bennett and Winnie’.

"Why don’t they write about the other members of the board because we were not the only ones there?" he said.

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