Prince Mashele: ‘Mashaba and I signed a non-disclosure provision’

Political commentator Prince Mashele and ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba had signed a non-disclosure provision preventing him from disclosing funding details of his book, The Outsider: Unauthorised Biography of Herman Mashaba, to the publishers.

This was revealed by Mashele in an interview with the SABC on Tuesday.

Mashaba has been in the spotlight following a City Press report revealing that he had funded his biography, despite claims of it being an “unauthorised” project.

‘Loan’ agreement

Speaking to news broadcaster SABC, Mashele said he is yet to pay back the money paid towards the ‘research’ project, as it was a loan.

“In the contract, there was no provision that required me to disclose the source of the funding for the research project and I did not disclose because there was no provision and the contract I had signed with Herman had a non-disclosure provision so I couldn’t disclose with other parties the contract I had signed with Mashaba,” he said.

Earlier this year, the author said in an interview on eNCA with JJ Tabane that he “funds all his books” and that Mashaba had not been involved.

Watch the clip here:

As promised.
Listen to Prince Mashele LYING.
Days later, the truth is out that Mashaba paid R12.5m for the whole project.
Mashele MUST apologise to the Nation and resign as an analyst.
He must also tell the Nation whoelse is in the R12.5m payroll to profile the desperate Mashaba pic.twitter.com/9xUOslZtYn

— Mzwanele Manyi (@MzwaneleManyi) May 23, 2023

“This is what has caused confusion. People say I lied – I lied to no one. I developed the budget, I itemised the budget according to what would be needed over a period of four years. Then I took the budget to Herman and the two of us entered into a loan agreement, by the way I still need to pay it back. I simply made a proposal, which was accepted,” said Mashele.

READ MORE: Listen – Mashaba warns parties to ‘avoid ANC dollars’, put South Africa first

No corruption

He also said there were no shady dealings between him and Mashaba and that he had the right to charge whatever he wanted for his work.

“Because South Africans by the way are used to corruption in government and I don’t do work with the government precisely because of that, when you now say Mashaba and Prince, people think there’s a corrupt deal. This money belongs to Herman Mashaba, this is a transaction between private individuals, completely legal, so I sleep at night because I know I’ve committed no ethical crime or real crime.”

Publisher pulls out

Meanwhile, Jonathan Ball Publishers has pulled the book from the market.

“Following the disclosure that Herman Mashaba had funded the writing of a biography about him by Prince Mashele, as confirmed by Mashaba in a media release today, Jonathan Ball Publishers is left with no option but to withdraw The Outsider from the market,” the publisher said in a statement on Monday evening.

ALSO READ: ‘Unaware of funding agreement’ – Herman Mashaba’s biography pulled from market