State paid two Gupta companies R260m

THE GUPTA companies Infinity Media and The New Age (TNA) received more than R260 million from various government departments on advertising spend over a number of years.

This amount was revealed during the testimony of National Treasury official Jan Gilliland at the state capture inquiry in Johannesburg yesterday.

TNA owned the New Age newspaper and Infinity Media ran the television news channel ANN7.

Advocate Vincent Maleka told the commission’s chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that the aim of obtaining the proof of these payments was to finish telling the three-part story of GCIS.

The acting director-general at GCIS, Phumla Williams, told the first part and former GCIS chief executive Themba Maseko had told the second part, while Gilliland was testifying on the third part of the GCIS story, Maleka said.

Maseko had told the inquiry how he was fired from his job at former president Jacob Zuma’s request after he refused to help the Gupta family gain access to the GCIS’s R600m media-buying budget.

Williams also told the inquiry how her predecessor, Mzwanele Manyi, took control of GCIS’ media-buying unit, the tender board and appointed new members of the board.

Gilliland told the inquiry that Infinity Media received a total of R12m from government departments advertising expenditure, while TNA received R248m.