Africa-Press – South-Africa. After going on the defensive, Prince Mashele, the author of The Outsider: The unauthorised biography of Herman Mashaba, has disclosed that the ActionSA leader had funded the book and said he “unreservedly apologised” for denying it earlier.
Mashele’s apology comes a day after he falsely claimed in multiple interviews that he had not received funding from Mashaba and he had no legal obligation to disclose to Jonathan Ball Publishers the R12.5 million budget he received.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mashele said: “While I was bound by a non-disclosure obligation, I accept that I should not have stated that Mr Herman Mashaba had no role to play in the funding of the book.
“The correct fact is that the research that led to the production of the book was financed through a funding agreement with Mr Mashaba, to whom I am eternally grateful. I offer my apology to Mr Mashaba, who has since been associated with the controversy due to no fault of his own.”
The political commentator also apologised to TV personality JJ Tabane following an interview in which he had incorrectly stated that he self-funded all his books.
Mashele, in his admittance of guilt, thanked Jonathan Ball, who pulled his book off the shelves on Monday due to his failure to disclose his financial ties with Mashaba, and said he appreciated its professionalism.
The statement read: “I would also like to thank Jonathan Ball Publishers since, despite their disapproval of my non-disclosure about the funding, they still maintained that ‘The manuscript that was submitted to us stood up to scrutiny’.
“I appreciate the publisher’s professionalism in my interaction with them.”
News24 previously reported that Mashele said he lied about receiving funding due to the contract he had signed with Mashaba in 2019, which legally restricted him from disclosing his financial ties with the businessman-turned-politician.
Mashele added that he would not be conducting any more interviews about the matter.
The project, which began during Mashaba’s term as Johannesburg mayor, was also supported by senior researcher and ActionSA member Brutus Malada, who revealed the information surrounding the book.
Malada, who contributed research to the project and received R3.2 million, was outraged that Mashele did not acknowledge his work or credit him.
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