Mayor prohibits MM from speaking to press

Mayor, Afzul Rehman, who has always boasted the Newcastle Municipality is ‘transparent’, announced this week that all municipal staff, including manager, Kebone Masange, would be prohibited from speaking to journalists.

Cllr Rehman decided to lay down the law after readers of the Newcastle Advertiser questioned the integrity of the municipality following a series of articles relating to allegations of tender fraud.

He vehemently denied that he was ‘gagging’ the municipal manager but said he was not pleased about comments Mr Masange made in last week’s edition of the Newcastle Advertiser.

“There will be no discussions with staff members. They say things that are supposed to be off the record, and I want the perspective of the politicians and councillors to be reflected in the newspaper,” he said.

“Responses to questions by the media will not leave the municipality until I sign it off. The municipal manager does not stand for elections every five years, I do,” explained Cllr Rehman. “The municipal manager is not appointed by the community, I am. So, he is not the one who will be communicating.”

Cllr Rehman insists that all media queries be put in writing and directed to the municipality’s newly appointed communications manager from now on. The municipality should then be given at least three to four days to respond, during which he will be given the opportunity to amend the municipality’s responses as he sees fit.

Asked about the possibility that he would censor information he did not want the public to know, Cllr Rehman said that his intervention was to make sure that the ‘correct’ information goes out to the public.