Freedom TV concept ‘was taken by Zuma to Guptas’

An ANC concept touted as “Freedom Television”, to be broadcast by MultiChoice 10 years ago, was “taken over by the Gupta family” and apparently used to launch the now defunct ANN7 television channel.

According to ANC veteran Stan Ndlovu, the brains behind the project, he confidentially shared the concept with former president Jacob Zuma and other party heavyweights.

Ndlovu maintained the concept document and business plan, which he had improved on with the help of media experts Marcel Golding and Cecil Berry, “was taken by Zuma to the Guptas”.

Now, he has approached the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in a bid to uncover “the first signs of how the ANC was captured before the state was”.

Ndlovu is the custodian of the ANC’s massive archives, dating back to leaders Oliver Tambo, Johnny Makhathini and Thabo Mbeki’s years in exile.

He and fellow cadre Bruce Selebi had worked with Zuma since their arrival at the ANC’s camps in Lusaka in 1986.

“We held Zuma in very high esteem as one of our leaders and decided to share the concept with him at his Forest Town home in 2008.

“We later partnered with Red Pepper Productions – working alongside Golding and Berry – and held a meeting with MultiChoice bosses Nolo Letele and Mandla Langa, who gave us the nod.

“MultiChoice was excited at the concept, which was to show South Africa the undocumented history of the ANC in exile. The only hitch was that we needed funding. I firmly believe Zuma took our concept to the Guptas, who used it to launch ANN7.”

He added: “Zuma liked the concept. When MultiChoice agreed to the project, we bought editing facilities and cameras to train eight youngsters and paid them from our own pockets.

“I got calls in 2010 from Zuma’s son, Duduzane, and daughter, Duduzile, who wanted the ANC archives. I refused to part with them. The next thing we saw was the Guptas’ launch of ANN7 broadcast by MultiChoice.”

Ndlovu said MultiChoice “should show us the business plan used for ANN7 so we can compare that with ours”.

MultiChoice spokesperson Kenneth Nxumalo said he would refer enquiries about the company’s role in the ANC project to the executive chairperson.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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