Telkom sponsoring Thursday’s The New Age breakfast

Telkom is sponsoring Thursday’s New Age Business Breakfast with Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

However, neither the newspaper nor Telkom on Wednesday would say how much the sponsorship was costing the utility.

TNA spokesman Gary Naidoo said he did not know how much Telkom was spending.

Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said: “Details of Telkom’s product advertising agreements and sponsorship between Telkom and its media stakeholders are confidential.”

Earlier this month, City Press reported that some the biggest state-owned companies were paying millions of rands to bankroll the business breakfasts hosted by the Gupta family.

These included Transnet, Telkom and Eskom.

It was previously reported that Telkom sponsored 12 business breakfasts to the tune of R12 million in the 2012/13 financial year, according to the newspaper.

Following the report Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille pulled out of a TNA breakfast, saying she did not know it was sponsored using public funds.

This saw Zille and the newspaper come to loggerheads.

The newspaper responded by uploading a video of Zille thanking Telkom for sponsoring a previous TNA breakfast she attended.

Zille on Wednesday said TNA heavyweights tried to dissuade the DA from asking parliamentary questions on the paper’s funding.

The newspaper denied the claim.

Zille said she had written to President Jacob Zuma asking for a commission of inquiry to be appointed to probe the funding of the newspaper.

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