Salary payment glitch hits ANN7 and New Age staff in pockets
Submissions presented to Concourt for reinstatement
GUPTA-owned media houses had to dispatch company cars to fetch staff from their homes as many have been left broke due to unpaid salaries.
Some of the ANN7 and The New Age staff had not been paid their salaries by yesterday afternoon despite a communication from management that everybody was to be paid by the end of business yesterday.
Management had claimed that the problem was caused by an internal system error, which had been resolved by Monday afternoon.
“Staff should start receiving their salaries between today (February 26) and tomorrow,” read an internal communication from management.
ANN7 general manager Gary Naidoo confirmed the delays, saying it was a once-off.
He also revealed that the Guptas still had relations with some South African banks even though a majority of them had cut ties with the family following their implication in state capture.
The company currently banks with the Indianbased Bank of Baroda, which recently announced it would be exiting the country by the end of this month.
This move has caused a headache for the Guptas, with financial institutions reluctant to be associated with them despite ANN7 being sold to Mzwandile Manyi recently.
Naidoo said: “We’ve had technical difficulty and glitches for this month’s payroll, and it has caused a slight delay. We’ve informed the staff about the delays and most of them should have been paid already, and everyone should have been paid by the end of today (yesterday). It was a one-day delay because we normally pay staff on the 26th.”
He said the clearing of paperwork by payroll was delayed by a technical glitch and that this could not be rectified on time because of the weekend before payday.
“We have the Bank of Baroda but we also have relationships with other South African banks. I prefer not to name those banks as that is between us and them,” said Naidoo.
Some ANN7 workers had not received their salaries by yesterday morning and did not report to work, citing transport fare problems.
This resulted in the TV news channel having to run pre-recorded packages and repeats as there were no staff to carry out live programming duties for most of the morning.
This prompted management to offer to send company cars to collect workers from their homes and to provide them with lunch.
But this proved not enough as some workers were angry that they could not honour personal financial commitments.
“Everybody is despondent. The mood is sombre. It’s not fair that some people are paid and others not. We all also have responsibilities,” said an ANN7 journalist.
Another journalist said: “Manyi had better make a plan. We are not having it.”
Workers at the two Gupta-owned coal mines in Mpumalanga, Optimum and Koornfontein, experienced the same dilemma in the past few days but many have since received their salaries, with more expected to be paid by today.
We had technical difficulties for this month’s payroll
FORMER National Prosecuting Authority boss Mxolisi Nxasana wants to return to his job to continue the prosecutorial work he was prevented from doing by its highest-profile target – ex-president Jacob Zuma.
In written submissions filed on Friday with the Constitutional Court on Nxasana’s behalf, his advocates said the rule of law would be ensured by restoring him as leader.
“His reinstatement would allow him to continue the prosecutorial work he was prevented from doing by its highest-profile target (Zuma),” read the submissions.
In his affidavit filed last month, Nxasana complained: “Throughout my tenure as NDPP (National Director of Public Prosecutions), the head of the NPA, I was a target of a campaign aimed at ensuring that I could not fulfil my duties, notably with respect to the decisions I was required to make as NDPP regarding the prosecution of the fourth respondent (Zuma).”
In two weeks’ time, Nxasana’s successor, Shaun Abrahams, is expected to announce his decision on whether he will reinstate corruption, fraud, tax evasion and racketeering relating to the multibillion-rand arms deal.
The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) does not want Abrahams to be the NDPP deciding on the reinstatement of the charges against Zuma.
Casac has also told the court that Nxasana “is a man who has a price” and that “the institution (the NPA) is best served if he is not reinstated”.
Nxasana insisted there was no evidence supporting Casac’s contentions, saying the R17.3 million golden handshake he received was not illogical but an amount based on what he would have earned as a salary had he served his full term as NDPP.
“The integrity of the office of the NDPP would be strengthened by the return to public service of a man who withstood an assault on his position for nearly two years for simply trying to do his job,” read the submissions.
According to Nxasana’s advocates, a public servant who withstood the ordeal detailed in Nxasana’s affidavit was precisely the man who should be returned as NDPP to complete his work.
The Concourt was today due to hear Nxasana’s application for leave to appeal against the adverse Pretoria High Court order that failed to reinstate him.
Nxasana complained that the high court drew adverse inferences against him, in the absence of considering his version, and which ultimately resulted in the court concluding that it was not just and equitable to reinstate him to the office of NDPP.
“The high court elected not to reinstate Nxasana to his position as NDPP on the basis of adverse findings that it drew against him, in the absence of hearing his version,” explained his advocates.
Unlike Casac, Corruption Watch, Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation, which has applied to be a friend of the court, have asked the Concourt to reinstate Nxasana.
The council wants the decision to invalidate Abrahams’s appointment confirmed by the