NATIONAL NEWS - Online news site AfricaNews24-7 shocked some South Africans on Tuesday morning with an apparently breaking news story claiming that Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Sdumo Dlamini was “fighting for his life in the intensive care unit of a Durban hospital after falling sick a few weeks ago”.

Dlamini became the deputy minister in Cyril Ramaphosa’s new cabinet in May this year.

When The Citizen called the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (the way it is still listed online) for confirmation of the story, the head of the office, a certain Mr Cele, said they had “heard about” the story and would release a statement about it after a meeting.

He was, however, reluctant to make any sort of official comment about it.

When pressed about Dlamini’s welfare, Cele said that Dlamini, the former president of labour federtion Cosatu, “is okay”.

The website, which is owned by businessman Kenny Kunene and edited by former Sunday Independent editor Steve Motale, claimed they had sources close to the deputy minister who “suspect he could have been poisoned since he was a ‘very healthy’ man but mysteriously fell sick”.

However, none of the three people The Citizen reached at the department seemed aware of any health concerns.

Source: Caxton publication, The Citizen.