Mayor takes Guptas on over racist claims
JOBURG mayor Herman Mashaba is preparing to take on the Gupta family at the Equality Court in a fresh racism allegation application he plans to lodge against the once powerful family.
Mashaba said he wants to haul the Gupta brothers Ajay and Atul to court for racially abusing employees at Afro Worldview, formerly ANN7.
He has spoken to several ANN7 employees who claim they were racially abused by the family.
“Recently I engaged with past and present Gupta TV employees, who have relayed to me numerous accounts in which the station’s bosses allegedly uttered racial slurs against black employees, and black South Africans in general.”
The mayor said the employees wanted to remain anonymous for now, but they were willing to testify against the family in court. Mashaba said the workers indicated that working conditions at the Midrand media house were toxic.
“As a black South African, especially one that has endeavoured to excel through diligence and hard work, I cannot in all good conscience sit and watch as the Guptas sought to demean our people.
“South Africa’s tragic history of racism and discrimination, especially against black people, demands that we all stand up and take action in defence of our collective humanity,” Mashaba said.
The mayor said he is committed to non-racialism, which is why he was the first person to lay charges against Penny Sparrow after she called black beachgoers monkeys.
Sparrow has since gone into hiding. The former KwaZulu-Natal estate agent pleaded guilty to charges of crimen injuria and paid a R5 000 fine to avoid going to jail.
Mashaba said it was because of this that he felt compelled to take action against the Guptas.
“I intend to take on the Guptas to prove that, while they may have gotten away with insulting black people, and remain unpunished due to their close proximity to former president Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane and the ANC; I do not fear them. I will meet them with all determination and resolve necessary to restore the dignity of our black people.”
The DA mayor, who is fighting the Guptas in his personal capacity, has encouraged current and former Afro Worldview employees to contact him about any racial discrimination they have suffered.
Once he has collated all the information, Mashaba will approach the Equality Court.
The TV station, bought by Mzwanele Manyi, is facing tough times as it is due to be removed from MultiChoice’s DStv platform next Monday, after their contract expires.
MultiChoice is still looking for a new TV station that will take over the slot that Afro Worldview has occupied for over the past five years.
This follows the retrenchment of workers at the Gupta-owned newspaper Afro Voice, formerly known as The New Age.
The high court has granted the liquidation of the newspaper.
Gupta family spokesperson Gary Naidoo did not respond to calls and text messages.
Those who want to give Mashaba information about their experiences, can send their personal stories to guptatvcomplaints@gmail.com
PARLIAMENT is considering calling people who played a role in the early naturalisation of the Guptas to testify before an inquiry in the coming weeks.
This as Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs is closer to making a decision on whether to institute a full inquiry into the controversial family.
On Tuesday, the parliamentary researcher and legal services are expected to give a report to the portfolio committee on their preliminary investigation that would determine the type of inquiry.
Committee chairperson Hlomane Chauke revealed yesterday that there were days already set aside in the coming weeks when people would be called to testify before the inquiry.
“There are two or three days we have put aside. Definitely we are getting into that process,” said Chauke.
He could not give the exact dates owing to the committee programme not being in front of him.
However, Chauke said the committee had all along been dealing with peripheral issues around the Guptas acquiring citizenship.
“We are to go deeper in fact: how many of them who are here, how they came to the country, and what kind of document did they apply for when they came to the country. That is the information we want,” he said.
Chauke also said the committee would on Thursday receive a report around the documentation the committee researcher and legal services had requested from state institutions.
“There must be paper trail of everything that has been applied for – that kind of information is what we want and then to look who were involved in the process,” he said.
In May, the committee heard that much work still needed to be done in collecting and analysing information used by the Department of Home Affairs to grant the Guptas’ citizenship.
At the time some information was still being awaited from the departments of Home Affairs, Labour and North West Education.
The placement of advertisements in newspapers calling on the public to make submissions and a trip to interview potential interviewees had not been authorised.
Chauke said it was crucial that the committee obtained the information, which included a panel being established to deal with Gupta citizenship application.
“We want to get to know who are the people who were involved and look at the way to call them to testify.
“That information is to help us as to the kind of approach we are to take. Earlier we clearly were not sure if it was to be just a general investigation of the committee or a full inquiry – where we call people to testify and all of that.”
The DA’s Haniff Hoosen said he expected all records used by the department to make the decision to be produced so the committee could make a determination.
Hoosen said his party was cautiously optimistic on the ANC’s willingness to get to the bottom of the Gupta saga.
“Although there have been attempts previously by the ANC to prevent the investigation, now we have a new chairperson and the ANC took a different approach. Let’s see how it goes,” he said.
Hoosen said that so long as there was an open and transparent process, they would support the Gupta early naturalisation probe and that they would expose any cover-up.