Former Gupta channel to close down

DSTV has confirmed, in a short message to subscribers, that the AfroWorldView news channel, formerly known as ANN7 would go off the air on August 20.

Earlier this year MultiChoice said it would stop carrying the channel.

This came after the public fallout over the Gupta emails which showed that MultiChoice, which operates DStv, had inexplicably paid R25 million to the Gupta-owned channel, and had increased its annual carriage fee from R50m to R141m.

In August last year, the Guptas sold their media properties to former Government Communication and Information Systems head Mzwanele Manyi’s Afrotone – valuing The New Age newspaper at R150m and ANN7 at R300m – through a vendor financing deal.

In June, the newspaper shut its doors and last month Manyi went to court seeking for the paper to be liquidated.

In court papers he said the newspaper was financially insolvent and there were no prospects of its rescue.

A reporter at AfroWorldView last night said workers at the station, which went on the air in August 2013, had been kept in the dark.

“We have not been told anything. The last thing we were told was that our jobs are safe,” said the journalist. After the announcement that DStv would yank the channel off its platform earlier this year, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) sought to safeguard the jobs at the station.

“CWU have told us throughout that our jobs are safe. If AfroWorldView goes off air, the new entrant will try to absorb us,” said the journalist.

In its announcement that the channel would go off the air, MultiChoice also announced that a new “blackowned” news channel would replace AfroWorldView and sought applications from prospective bidders.

More than 60 entities applied for the bid, and while the successful bidder would have been announced at the end of the last month, this had been delayed by MultiChoice.

CWU spokesperson Aubrey Tshabalala said the union was hopeful that staff at the station would be absorbed by the new broadcaster.

He said two of the union’s shop stewards were suspended on Monday by AfroWorldView’s management when they sought to discuss the company’s future with fellow workers.

When contacted for comment, Manyi said he would only respond via texts and had failed to do so at the time of publishing.

AfroWorldView to come off air on August 20, DStv confirms to subscribers