Mail & Guardian was part of capture bucket list – report

After concluding that the Mail & Guardian’s (M&G’s) anti-Zuma editorial position was counterproductive to the family’s ambitions, the Guptas were ready to throw money at the problem.

Their solution was to mount a hostile takeover of the publication and its sister publications.

This is revealed in a series of #GuptaEmails between former Oakbay CEO Nazeem Howa and Rajesh ‘Tony’ Gupta. The planned acquisition was labelled Project M.

According to The Sowetan and TimesLive, the email exchange took place in January 2016, in which Howa expressed concern over the paper’s stance on Zuma.

“The newspaper is champion on a position [sic] that President Zuma is corrupt and should be relieved of his responsibility. They have made it their main focus to find ways to support #ZumaMustFall campaign and the family and our group have become convenience [sic] pawn in their strategy to unseat the president,” Howa is quoted in an email he sent to Tony Gupta.

WATCH: Gordhan slams Gupta-owned ANN7, its so-called ‘independent analysts’

This is the man who, at some point, offered to polish the media skills of a certain “young man”. The young man in question is understood to be Collen Maine, the ANCYL president.

Howa cautioned Tony Gupta that the newspaper’s advertising revenue had taken a knock and suggested the ruling party may have deliberately withheld advertising to suffocate it in protest against its ‘anti-Zuma’ position.

The publication contextualises the timing of the planned takeover as coinciding with a period when the publication turned up the heat on Zuma-Gupta corruption allegations.

Tony Gupta, accused by M&G and the Sunday Times of trying to bribe an SAA official, attempted to sue both publications for R500 million. The case never went to trial.

Trevor Ncube, the M&G deputy executive chairperson and publisher, told The Sowetan it would be “reckless and irresponsible to off-load the business to anybody likely to undermine the 30-year-plus legacy of fiercely independent journalism”.

“The Mail & Guardian is a national institution. We have a duty to protect its brand of journalism, particularly cutting-edge investigative journalism,” he said.

http://https://www.citizen.co.za/news/news-national/guptaleaks-what-you-need-to-know-thus-far/

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