Manyi’s multimillion-rand company unknown to nephew staying at Soweto HQ

Lobby Manyi, the nephew of former Cabinet spokesperson and businessman Mzwanele Manyi, has revealed that though his uncle has an office on the premises of his Soweto house, he wasn’t aware it belonged to Lodidox.

Lodidox is the company registered to Manyi, and was used to buy The New Age and ANN7 for R450 million. The deal was disclosed yesterday.

According to The Sowetan, Manyi’s nephew lived full time at the house, which is registered to Lodidox. He said Jimmy would visit now and again to conduct business for the Decolonisation Foundation.

The newspaper reports the house has no business branding, no clear address, has a single garage and a reception area with a counter and a telephone.

Manyi held an interview with Power FM in which he said the acquisition shouldn’t be regarded as such a surprise since he had experience in managing government media.

“I think firstly let’s be clear that I am not coming into the media space cold. I used to run the GCIS, which is a media agency in the government. So what this means is that this is a bigger GCIS, a GCIS for South Africa.

“This is going to be the hub of communication for the country. This is for the first time you might even see Rupert on TV. I’ve never seen Rupert addressing a media conference, but this is his chance now to address a whole range of things,” Manyi told Power FM.

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