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Cape Town - Vuyo Batyi, former acting chairperson at the Independent Communications Regulator of South Africa is taking Communications Minister Faith Muthambi to court for failing to appoint her as Icasa chair despite giving her an appointment letter.
The Sunday Times reported on Sunday that the U-turn on the decision to appoint Batyi was because she declined to approve a bid by the Guptas to launch a free-to-air 24-hour news channel. The pressure to approve the Gupta bid allegedly came from the minister herself.
The part Gupta-owned Infinity Media Networks was one of five applicants vying for a free-to-air digital broadcast licence but none were granted because they all failed to comply with Icasa’s requirements. The other four applicants were Medo Investments, Levoca 565 trading as Hola Media, Rubicon Investments and Change TV Network.
The application of Infinity Media, which is 35% owned by the Gupta family’s investment vehicle Oakbay Investments, 35% by an Indian-based media company, 21% by Mabengela Investments (controlled by President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane and Rajesh Gupta), and 9% by the top management of ANN7, was rejected based on it exceeding the 20% foreign ownership threshold.
Batyi told the Sunday Times she was taking the minister to court and Muthambi “will get the papers when they are ready”.
Muthambi allegedly told Batyi her job came “with conditions” and she had been appointed only for a year to “prove herself”, sources told the Sunday Times.
The latest report comes as the Guptas are battling to fight off allegations of state capture at several state-owned companies and government departments, including Denel, Prasa, National Treasury and the Department of Mineral Resources.
The Guptas are close friends of President Jacob Zuma and business partners with his son Duduzane, which highlights the level of trust the families share between themselves.
Allegations that the Guptas hand-picked Mosebenzi Zwane to be Mines Minister and Des van Rooyen to be Finance Minister intensified when deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas claimed they offered him the role before Van Rooyen was chosen. The Guptas, Zwane, Van Rooyen and Zuma all deny these allegations.
While no criminal proceedings have yet been brought against the Guptas, the Public Protector was promised half of its R3m by Treasury to start its investigation into government state capture. In addition, the Hawks are busy with an inquiry into three affidavits brought to them by the Democratic Alliance, Cope and MP Vytjie Mentor regarding the Guptas and state capture.
The Guptas have often welcomed an investigation, saying they have done nothing wrong.
Ajay Gupta told the SABC in June he believes the idea of state capture is an imaginary concept created by the media. “It is mind capture, it is media capture,” he said.
The Guptas have majority shares in Oakbay Investments, which owns The New Age newspaper, ANN7 TV news channel, Sahara and Optimum coal mine. They also have shares in Oakbay Resources and Energy, which owns the mining company Shiva.
The Guptas resigned this year from all positions after their auditor KPMG, their JSE sponsor Sasfin and all South Africa’s top banks cut ties and blacklisted the firm.
