MultiChoice drops Afro Worldview

Employees of Afro Worldview‚ previously known as ANN7‚ were told on Monday not to return to work on Tuesday. Communications Workers Union general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said: “That is true. That is what our members told us.”

That is a wrap‚ folks.

Employees of Afro Worldview‚ previously known as ANN7‚ were told on Monday not to return to work on Tuesday.

Communications Workers Union general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said: “That is true. That is what our members told us.”

Tshabalala said they were disappointed at how management had handled the channel’s demise.

“Management should be upfront with workers to say what will happen if they are cut off from midnight tonight [Monday]. Are workers going to stay at home? What will happen to their salaries?

“Those are the things that we felt that management was not upfront with them [about].”

MultiChoice spokesman Kenneth Nxumalo confirmed they would be pulling the plug at midnight on the channel that was launched in 2013.

“Our contract with Afro Worldview comes to an end today. We will provide an update about the Afro Worldview channel by end of day today,” Nxumalo said.

It remains unclear what will take its place on DStv’s channel 405.

Afrotone Media Holdings chairman Mzwanele Manyi — who owns Afro Worldview — said on Monday evening: “I am not talking to media on Afro Worldview business … on any issue whatsoever.”

On Monday‚ Manyi tweeted a photograph of the staff and said: “Dear South Africa‚ Please put this innocent team of breadwinners in your prayers. They NEED their jobs.”

Tshabalala said they were in negotiations with MultiChoice, which had agreed that the new licensee would absorb current employees.

“Here we are not talking about executive people who have a lot in their coffers. We are talking about working people who rely on their monthly salary‚ so a day or two without a salary is disastrous.”

Manyi said in July that Afro Worldview’s association with the Gupta family had created an unshakeable perception that it was an integral part of “state capture”‚ leading to the collapse of Afro Voice newspaper.

He made this submission in an application in the High Court in Pretoria to place the company under provisional liquidation.

Afrotone bought TNA Media from Gupta-owned company Oakbay Investments in August 2017. Afro Voice was previously known as The New Age and published its last edition on June 29.