NATIONAL NEWS - In a cryptic tweet on Monday night alluding to a press conference to take place at noon on Tuesday, EFF leader Julius Malema promised he would dish up the dirt on MultiChoice, which will be announcing who will take over the news channel formerly owned by the Guptas on DStv.
Malema said he felt somewhat in a quandary about whether to “release the file” before MultiChoice’s announcement, or wait until his party’s own press conference later in the day.
The EFF press conference will also deal with “developments in the metros”. The EFF has turned against the DA and has already removed Athol Trollip from Nelson Mandela Bay, while a motion of no confidence against Solly Msimanga in Tshwane is also threatening the DA’s control of the capital city.
Many of his followers begged him to release whatever info he claims to have, but he ignored them.
MultiChoice chief executive Calvo Mawela will on Tuesday announce the successful bidder of the new black-owned 24-hour news channel on DStv.
This after MultiChoice last week pulled the plug on Afro Worldview – the television channel formerly owned by the Gupta brothers under the name ANN7 – which until August 20 had been aired on DStv 405.
Earlier in January, Mawela said “mistakes” were made in contractual negotiations with the formerly Gupta-owned 24-hour news channel ANN7 after MultiChoice inexplicably paid R25 million to the Gupta-owned channel and increased its annual carriage fee from R50 million to R141 million.
At the time, Mawela said the agreement would be terminated when the deal expired on August 20, ending a five-year relationship after the channel started broadcasting in 2013.
The channel had changed ownership and name after Mzawanele Manyi’s Afrotone Media Holdings bought it for R300 million in a vendor-financed deal from the Guptas’ Infinity Media.
Staff at Afro Worldview were earlier informed not to report for work from August 21.
