Zille withdraws from New Age breakfast following City Press report

DA leader Helen Zille has withdrawn from participating in a breakfast of The New Age following a City Press report according to which three of the country’s biggest state-owned companies are paying millions of rands to bankroll ­business breakfasts hosted by President Jacob Zuma’s close friends, the Gupta family.

“I, and other senior DA colleagues, have previously spoken at the New Age Business Breakfasts, under the assumption that the events were funded by the newspaper and by the members of the public who purchase tickets to attend,” Zille said in a statement.

“Now that it has come to light that the breakfasts are funded by public money via the SOEs to the tune of millions of rand, the DA cannot continue to participate.”

Zille said she had written to the editor of The New Age to explain her reasons for withdrawing from the event on January 31.

“It is not acceptable or defensible for public money to be used to bankroll a privately owned newspaper, and indirectly the coffers of the ANC. This is especially true when those same SOEs, like Eskom, are asking the public to cough up ever more money for electricity bills and train tickets,” Zille said.

Read The New Age’s full response to questions about the breakfast here: R25m for breakfast

- City Press