Kevin Scott State-owned companies Denel and Khula Enterprise Finance Limited have spent as much as R80 000 together in advertisements wishing the African National Congress a happy 90th anniversary. The companies deny wrongdoing and say the adverts were not placed with political motives. The adverts all carry messages congratulating the party and appeared in an ANC anniversary supplement to the Sunday Times. Company spokespersons are saying they were placed to target clients and build their brand names. A third state-owned company Arivia.kom placed a straightforward advert worth about R30 000 with no particular congratulatory message. Sam Bosch, a spokesperson for the giant arms manufacturer Denel, said the company was not using taxpayers’ money for the advert. “Denel relies on its own resources,” he told the Mail & Guardian this week. Although unsure, Bosch said the full-colour advert that took up nearly three-quarters of the page cost about R20 000 to place. Sources at the Sunday Times, however, said the advert cost close to R70 000. Bosch said the advert was placed as the company was “looking for a medium to build the Denel brand”. Denel was formed in 1992 with the state as the sole shareholder and the board of directors appointed by the minister of public enterprises. Bosch stressed that despite being owned by the government, the company receives no subsidies. The government does, however, get Denel’s dividends.
Bosch said placing an advert without congratulating the ANC “would have looked stupid”. Khula Enterprise’s marketing executive, Brendan Mbatha, said Khula’s advert was “basically a business imperative”. He said Khula, which spent about R10 000 on its advert, focuses on “small enterprises and entrepreneurs from previously disadvantaged communities. “This was an opportunity from a publicity point of view. It wasn’t politically motivated.” Arivia.kom’s Peter Phillips said the company’s decision to place the advert was purely pragmatic. “There was no conscious decision to not put a message congratulating them in. We were targeting a lot of the black leadership that would be reading the supplement.”