Hounding of black media
Ferial Haffajee, Daily Maverick, lies and the possibility of a hidden hand pulling strings
IN 2013, when black-owned Sekunjalo Independent Media (SIM) – a special purpose vehicle created to ensure community groupings could benefit in the new media space – successfully acquired Independent Media from its Irish owners, attention was drawn to the make-up of the media in South Africa and who funds it.
Similarly, when other black-owned players entered the field, they also found themselves the focus of unwarranted attention, even hounded by some of our peers in the media, who demanded to see who backed them.
Others, such as Piet Rampedi of the African Times, were even accused of being funded by the infamous Gupta family, which was an outright falsehood. Even though Rampedi repeatedly spoke out and confirmed his funders were local black businessmen who had acquired equity stakes, he was endlessly asked the same question, more often than not by a specific clique of journalists making use of social media to drive their agenda.
Human casualties are an inevitable consequence of war, and let us be clear: there is a war happening in the media space in South Africa.
Rampedi is currently the assistant editor of the Sunday Independent, South Africa’s leading Sunday read. His media company, Mohlakamotala Media, which owned the African Times, was apparently dealt a deadly blow by the SA Revenue Service (Sars) when, according to him, it reneged on a pre-existing tax repayment agreement. Apparently, a hidden hand interfered in his business affairs, resulting in the company becoming non-compliant without a tax clearance certificate.
The African Times, according to Rampedi, carried a number of government contracts at the time, and the net result was government departments failing or being unable to pay for services already rendered, and being prevented from doing further business with a non-compliant entity. Even today, the paper is still owed hundreds of thousands of rand by various departments, according to Rampedi.
All of this led me to consider the real possibility of a hidden hand pulling various puppets’ strings, such as a ghost media mogul with ties to Sars and the government, with the singular purpose of driving an anti-black, anti-transformation narrative.
Over the years, some members of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) have attempted to elicit details as to who was funding the likes of Sekunjalo and co. In 2013, for example, attempts by Nick Dawes and Sanef were made to stop the Independent Media transaction when it was known that Sekunjalo was in the mix.
Dawes, head of Sanef at the time, approached the Competition Commission. Calls were made for Sekunjalo to open its books about its funders. Interestingly, they never made the same demands when Tiso Blackstar bought the then Times Media Group (owners of the Sunday Times, Sowetan and Business Day).
The situation was intensified when a consortium that currently owns the Mail & Guardian – The Media Diversity
Investment Fund – attempted to blackmail Sekunjalo during the Independent Media transaction in 2013, to force it to sell flagship titles such as The Mercury, Pretoria News and Cape Times, stipulating that they would not oppose the Competition Commission action if they did.
Fast-forward to 2019, and the question hot on the lips of those in media circles is: Who funds the likes of the Daily Maverick and amaBhungane?
Some well-placed sources I have spoken to claim that these organisations may well have received hundreds of millions of rand of funding from various corporate entities, and certain political camps within the ANC, the DA and, some say, even the FF Plus.
Several contributors on these platforms have demanded that political parties declare where they obtain funding. Others have defended political campaigns where billions were raised for provincial delegates in conferences.
The Daily Maverick (DM) is happy to point fingers at others, yet remains obstinate in declaring its own. But if it’s in the public’s interest to know where money that supports political campaigns and media houses comes from, surely it’s in all our interests to know who is supporting the DM too?
When questions were sent to DM editor-in-chief, Branko Brkic, he refused to discuss the organisation’s finances, declaring that donations do not impact on editorial direction.
Be that as it may, I find it at variance to what we witness from the DM which, for example, is light on coverage pertaining to any whiteowned organisation that benefited from the PIC’s largesse and that has subsequently lost billions of rand.
Additionally, rumour has it that the Daily Maverick receives millions in funding from organisations linked to wealthy families and some have suggested this could include the likes of the Oppenheimers – one of South Africa’s former first families – who, reliable sources inform, have invested R20 million in the online news website that purports to offer a public service with the publishing of “news” being the investigations it undertakes.
These are the same organisations of which the likes of former City Press editor and associate editor of the DM Ferial Haffajee are now beneficiaries. Just last week, Haffajee hounded our reporters at the Sunday Independent, who had exposed how Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan had imposed his will on the appointment of a chief executive at a subsidiary at SAA. Haffajee demanded to know who our journalists’ informants were, then published an article about a “disinformation campaign” around SAA.
To my mind, there is a far greater danger at work here. When someone like Haffajee, who is not unintelligent, makes absurd demands and claims, one must consider that she is being played and manipulated.
The possibility of a shadowy spectre becomes more real if one considers it might have something to do with the Department of Public Enterprises, under whose auspices the likes of the bankrupt SAA, Eskom etc sit – coincidence or not, you be the judge.
“There’s a war happening in the media space in South Africa