Survé defends media freedom
IN SPITE of challenges in the South African media landscape, Independent Media executive chairman Dr Iqbal Survé has continued to defend media freedom in his company.
Survé also emphasised the importance of black people owning their own stories from white liberals who previously dominated the industry.
He is a medical doctor, philanthropist and entrepreneur, who owns the largest media house in the country, with close to 20 titles.
He was speaking in what was dubbed, “one of the most sought-after interviews of the year”, with TV talk show host Dr Onkgopotse JJ Tabane’s Power to Truth on Monday night.
“Media is very important for freedom … and we have fought for freedom in this country. Democracy is important. Narrative is important. The mind is important.
“As a black South Africans during apartheid, we were always presented differently by the very same media … and my motivation for buying Independent Media came from my daughter, because our home in Cape Town was a home of diversity and lots of different people used to come there to say to me that or why are they not being reflected in the media today.
“We started a process and that process resulted in us buying Independent Media, which was sold by white liberals to the Irish to prevent it from falling into black hands at the time.”
Survé stressed that the media was critical to hold those who were in power to account. “It is to tell the stories of the poor people from our townships.
“We have the largest student newspaper in this country, over 7 million readers a day… these things are important for change. And I think we must fight for the right to have our story told.”
Survé conceded that he had not achieved what was set out to achieve at Independent Media. “It was the bigger group, the 20 or so titles, and they saw it personally as this… When I acquired it, they suddenly woke up and said: ‘How could this happen?’ And in fact, the DA tried to buy it the day or two before using our front entity.
“All the other liberal media and white liberals started attacking us because they saw this important bastion of so-called white liberalism in the media stable but now in black hands… At the beginning, you know, they were okay… then they realised that we were not going to allow them to dictate our narrative. We will speak for ourselves.
As Steve Biko says, I write what I like.”
Survé also did not mince his words expressing his disappointment in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, saying they had ganged up on him in bid to shut down his consortium, including Sekunjalo Investments, as he did not “tow the line”.
He singled out Gordhan at the live show, blaming him for the continual onslaught against him and his businesses.
He said Gordhan was hell-bent on taking him out of business because he was a “danger” to white liberals and a “role model”. Survé made reference to Gordhan’s book, Joining the Dots. “If you read his book, he says I (Survé) will pay the price for opposing him.
“Pravin told me many times that they were against me because I didn’t toe the line.”
Survé, voicing his disappointment in Ramaphosa and the governing ANC, said: “I may have supported the ANC historically, I’m not sure going forward.”