Manyi shuts down AfroVoice newspaper

CONTROVERSIAL businessman Mzwanele Manyi’s newspaper AfroVoice has shut down.

Staff at the newspaper, which until April had been known as The New Age, were told that they should not come into work yesterday as the paper would be closed with immediate effect.

While they would not be working for the month of July, staff were promised that they would be paid their salaries.

Manyi would not respond to calls on text messages seeking comment on closure of the newspaper.

The newspaper was first published in 2010 by the Guptas and was a voice which backed the administration of former president Jacob Zuma, who was closely linked to the emigrant Indian family.

The New Age had signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Transnet and the SABC to broadcast its breakfasts, which a parliamentary ad-hoc inquiry into the public broadcaster found only benefited the Guptas.

Manyi had bought the media assets of the Guptas, The New Age newspaper and the ANN7 news channel, through a complicated vendor financing deal. In essence the Guptas lent Manyi’s Lodidox R450 million to buy their media assets.

Earlier this year Multichoice had announced that ANN7, now AfroWorld View would from August not be broadcast on its DStv platform.

This after the Guptaleak emails had revealed that the Guptas had been paid R25 million by Multichoice before the channel had gone to air, and had increased its annual carriage fees to the channel from R50 million to R141 milion.

A reporter in Cape Town said he had only received a text message that Thursday was the newspaper’s last day of publication and that he shouldn’t come in on Sunday (yesterday).

In Midrand where the newspaper is based, alongside the AfroWorld View news channel, staff were called to a meeting with Manyi who had told them that the business was not doing well, and for this reason it would be shut down until the management of Afrotone Media holdings could come up with a solution.

One of the reporters at the meeting with Manyi said the closure had not come as a surprise.

“We were called to meeting at 3.35pm by the chairman (Manyi), we waited for him before he made an appearance but already there were rumours amongst the staff that the newspaper might be closing down.

“Eventually the chairman came in at around 4.50pm and told staff that only the AfroVoice employees (would be affected). He told us that they had been running at a loss for a while now, and not making a profit,” said the reporter.

According to Manyi, in his meeting with the staff, the newspaper had no adverts, and that newspapers were currently struggling.

“For now the board had decided to stop (publication of the newspaper) while the board sought other solutions. After the meeting we asked him when are we stopping and he said today (Thursday) was the last edition and on Sunday we must not come to work but we will paid at the end of July,” said the staffer.

Staff at the newspaper got the salaries deposited early this month on June 22 instead of the expected June 26.

Staff at the paper were not told about any sort of severance packages by Manyi who insisted that the company was still seeking a solution to its troubles.

“After the meeting ended everyone just shook hands.

The guys know that there is no coming back after this, people were disappointed because of the short notice.

“Every month we had the feeling that something like this could happen . . . they should have given us at least three months, that gives more time for people to secure their futures. For now we don’t know what’s going to happen after July,” said the staffer.

A young journalist who started his career at AfroVoice said the announcement was sudden although it came as a relief. “It did come as a bit of a surprise.”