Anne Eveleth
DYNAMO Investments Chairman Oscar Dhlomo says he promised full editorial independence to staff at City Press – South Africa’s largest black weekly – before a consortium led by his company bought a controlling share of the newspaper from Naspers.
The R110-million sale of 51% of the paper – to Dynamo, Ukhozi Investments and former KaNgwane chief minister Enos Mabuza’s New Seasons Investments was “formalised” at a function at the Rosebank Hotel on June 12, marking the culmination, Dhlomo says, of a “two year negotiation to which staff did not object.”
Dynamo got the biggest slice of the consortium’s stake in the new company, City Press Media Limited, at 20%, with the remaining shares comprising Ukhozi (10%), New Seasons (10%), distributors (6%) and staff (5%).
City Press was the first successful media bid by Dynamo – which also has interests in food manufacturing, financial services, tourism and gambling. Plans announced last December to include the newspaper as a 15% black empowerment partner in a consortium bidding for KwaZulu-Natal’s private sound radio station hinged on Dynamo’s puchase of the newspaper, Radio One consortium spokesman – and former Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) business consultant – Laurence Anthony said, at the time.
City Press was not, however, the first successful media bid by Dhlomo, who reluctantly admitted to previous “newspaper acquisition experience”. Dhlomo was secretary-general of Inkatha (not the Inkatha Freedom Party, he said, but “Inkatha’s national cultural liberation movement”) when it “acquired” the Zulu- language newspaper Ilanga from the Argus Group. Dhlomo said he “drafted and implemented” Inkatha’s acquisition strategy.
Dhlomo was at pains this week to distance his new company from the political home he left after fierce power struggles with IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and denied his past might come back to haunt his newly acquired employees: “I haven’t been a member of a political party for the past eight years. Besides, even Ilanga in my time had a mission statement that ensured editorial independence,” he said.
Indeed. And the eight staff members who fled that newspaper when IFP treasurer general Arthur Konigkrammer took over as MD did find other employment. Some are even doing quite well: Fred Khumalo and Cyril Madlala are at the Sunday Times, Mdu Lembede joined the TRC, Clement Ntombela is now SABC Durban’s radio news editor and Fraser Mtshali is running one of those lucrative consultancies.