Pretoria - The silver BMW 5-series reported by the City Press to have run up a heap of traffic fines does not belong to Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, his office said today.
The article with the headline "Ndebele, Letsoalo threaten drivers while they rack up fines", alleged that the minister was the owner of the vehicle, but according to the Transport Department it was sold to a motor vehicle dealership in 2010.
"Media reports on this matter are false, malicious, misleading, sensational, and are intended to cast aspersions on my integrity as well as insinuate that I am not fit and proper to hold office as Minister of Transport," Ndebele said in a statement.
Such reports, he said, rubbished the government campaign to ensure safer roads when more than a thousand lives were lost this past December alone.
He vowed to take action "against those responsible for the defamatory and false allegations which have been published, including against officials who leaked information when no crime was committed as well as the newspapers concerned, and will do the same in respect of any other media which communicates false allegations".
