By Myles Illidge.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) want to serve Varun and Atul Gupta with a notice of motion over social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
According to a City Press report, the SABC and SIU have requested permission to do so through a recent court application. They hope to recoup R4.2 million from the Gupta family.
The Gupta brothers previously owned The New Age (TNA) Media, the company against which the SABC and SIU filed the application.
The Guptas are accused of corruption and have fled to the United Arab Emirates. TNA Media has been stalling since 2018.
The State Capture Commission, led by former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, revealed in 2022 that former president Jacob Zuma was involved in a controversial advertising deal that led to the SABC’s loss of R4.3 million of advertising revenue for TNA Media and ANN7.
“The contract in question was irregular and was created for the benefit of TNA Media and or the members of the Gupta family to the detriment of the mandate that the SABC has towards the public,” the State Capture Commission’s report reads.
“The SABC should consider instituting civil proceedings against TNA Media or any of its directors and recover all the costs incurred by the SABC, including disgorgement of profits made by TNA Media about the breakfast shows.”
The public broadcaster and SIU hope to recover costs and profits made by TNA Media from the Gupta family’s assets.
The controversial deal between the public broadcaster and TNA Media allegedly resulted in resources being diverted away from the SABC’s Morning Live to host a TNA Media breakfast show.
In January 2017, a leaked working document from the parliamentary ad hoc committee said the deals between TNA Media and the SABC should be probed and terminated if found to be irregular.
“In all instances where such deals are in essence diverting resources from the SABC, such deals must be terminated,” the document said.
In December 2016, former SABC group chief executive of technology, Sipho Masinga, told the ad hoc committee that a TNA Media representative also proposed that it take over SABC News and rebrand it.
“During the meeting attempts were made to ‘sell’ an agreement which would effectively allow New Age Media to take over SABC news and rebrand it,” the document said.
It also recommended that the SABC review the business case of entering agreements with rival TV stations to ensure it isn’t involved in any cross-subsidisation with the competitor.
Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela committed to probing the deals in November 2016.
During the prior phase of the investigation, the probe included interviewing EFF leader Julius Malema to solicit evidence relating to the influence of Gupta family members in the media.
Malema alleged that the SABC had allowed government departments and ministers to broadcast announcements and campaigns at no cost.
“SABC has since entered into a partnership agreement with the New Age newspaper and government departments, including Ministers are required to pay either SABC, New Age newspaper and/or the relevant partnership to appear on SABC for purposes of communication with the nation,” he said.
Madonsela said Fikile Mbalula, who was serving as Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture at the time of the investigation, had confirmed the allegations.
“Following the above allegations, I have decided to investigate any contract(s) awarded to the New Age newspaper and/or TNA Media by the SABC. The investigation into SABC will however form part of the next phase of the investigation,” she said.