War Room: We waged an ‘aerial battle against hostile media’‚ says Sisulu

Shaka Sisulu says he was “not involved in a smear campaign” but the so-called ANC “war room” waged “aerial battle” in last year’s elections.

Sisulu was this week named as the man behind an alleged covert campaign to promote the ANC and discredit opposition parties in the run-up to the local government polls in August.

He said the “initiative… came out of our own knowledge of what is required” in what “was an extremely hostile media environment against the ANC”‚ Sisulu said in a video interview aired on News24.

“We looked at ways that it can be dealt with.”

The ANC has distanced itself from the campaign‚ but Sisulu said data collected by the team would be shared with his colleagues on the ruling party’s official communications team.

Sisulu said donor money was not as forthcoming as he had hoped‚ and dismissed the R50-million budget reported this week as the “figment of someone’s imagination”.

Knowledge of the “war room” emerged this week when public relations expert Sihle Bolani took the ANC to court on Tuesday‚ claiming that she was owed R2.2-million for work done by her company during the campaign and in the process spilled the beans on how it flopped and was eventually canned.

Her case was dismissed as not being urgent. – TMG Digital