The takeover bid of media company Johncom by Koni Media Holdings — belonging in part to President Thabo Mbeki’s political adviser Titus Mofolo — was met with strong opposition by political parties on Monday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) said arguments that those involved in the takeover bid were not fronting for the government were “unpersuasive”.
“We have yet to be persuaded that the deeper recesses of the Union Buildings — the Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — are not involved,” said MP Dene Smuts in a statement.
She said the R7-billion offer was “highly reminiscent” of the apartheid government’s attempt to buy secretly Johncom’s predecessor, the old Morning Group: South African Association Newspapers, in the so-called “Information Scandal” in the 1970s.
Koni Media Holdings — belonging to Mofolo, foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa, former chief of state protocol Billy Modise and a businessman — is behind the buy-out effort.
The South African Communist Party said the take-over would further entrench the divide between the rich and the working class.
“Whilst we remain supportive of efforts to transform patterns of media ownership in South Africa, it has become extremely worrying how workers’ money is being spent to finance accumulation for the few when the majority of them remain poor,” said party spokesperson Malesela Maleka.
Reacting to a Sunday Times report that Koni had been in talks with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to raise the cash for its bid, Maleka said the PIC’s money could be better spent.
“We need to redirect the finance activities of the PIC and other worker funds to meet the developmental objectives and priorities of our country, including job creation, fighting poverty and the scourge of HIV.”
PIC chief executive Brian Molefe said on Sunday that no deal to fund the Koni bid had been concluded. “The PIC has not agreed to any funding. There is no truth that the funding has been approved by the PIC for this,” he said. — Sapa
On the net
Read a Thought Leader contribution on this subject