Details behind the Guptas’ media empire revealed

The Gupta family’s media outlets The New Age (TNA) newspaper and 24-hour news channel African News Network 7 (ANN7) generated R419-million in revenue for the financial year ending February 2016.

This is according to an affidavit filed at the Pretoria High Court on Friday by their holding company Oakbay Investments in response to an application lodged in October last year by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

The minister filed the application seeking an order declaring that he cannot interfere with the decision of the country’s four major banks not to do business with the controversial family.

The family has since promised to “spill the beans” on how they are victims of a “planned, concerted and politically driven smear campaign” against them in their opposing court documents.

Oakbay Investments acting chief executive‚ Ronica Ravagan‚ said in court papers TNA and ANN7 (along with other Oakbay Group companies) created 783 jobs, with the news channel focusing on job creation and skills development.

“ANN7 and TNA currently have offices in six provinces in SA. ANN7‚ in conjunction with TNA‚ has an existing cadet academy‚ which has launched the careers of many SA journalists since its inception‚ both at ANN7 and TNA and other media outlets‚” reads the affidavit.

Ravagan stated that since 2012‚ the cadets academy had produced‚ on average‚ 40 young journalists a year.

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However a working document by a parliamentary ad hoc committee probing the fitness of the SABC board, leaked online this week, noted that the SABC’s “then corporate executive: technology testified that a meeting had been arranged between himself and a representative from New Age Media‚ the parent company of ANN7”.

“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 also stated that even though the “committee could not establish beyond doubt whether the distribution of the New Age newspaper was still the norm at the SABC…what is obvious is that the SABC‚ while it was facing financial difficulties‚ appeared to have signed exclusive contracts to distribute a newspaper subscription at a national scale over and above those of other media newspapers”.

Gordhan’s extraordinary application named 72 “dubious and unusual” transactions totalling R6.8 billion against the Guptas’ companies, which are suspected to be behind the banks’ decision to close the accounts.

Oakbay has described Gordhan as a “weak-kneed politician”, saying his court application against them is bizarre, superfluous and riddled with factual and legal errors

They also accused the minister of being involved in a coordinated political campaign to “clip the wings of the Gupta family”. But Gordhan speaking at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland, on Thursday said he simply wanted legal clarity on the issue.