A group of prominent black South African professionals accused the country's mainly white-owned media today of promoting a white right-wing campaign against President Thabo Mbeki and other black leaders.
The group, which paid for a full page advert in the South African
Sunday Times
newspaper, said the president was the victim of an apartheid-style disinformation campaign.
"There is a very perceptible and increasingly strident campaign against black people in powerful positions, whether in government, business or in the labour movement," said the group of 11 academics and business people.
They said the country's image was shaped by a very small minority, entirely hostile to our democracy .
The president has come under withering criticism since his police minister launched a criminal probe last month into an alleged plot from within the ranks of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to oust the president.
Three businessmen and members of the ruling African National Congress - Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa - have denied allegations that they were part of the plot.
The three men were not among the group that published the advert. Mr Mbeki has since said he did not think they meant him any physical harm, but he supported the police investigation.
Local newspapers and ANC allies have called the inquiry an abuse of state power that has inflicted further damage on Mr Mbeki's reputation.
Mr Mbeki has been the subject of international scorn for his questioning of the link between HIV and AIDS, and was criticised for his soft approach to political violence and the illegal seizure of white-owned farms in neighbouring Zimbabwe.