MEDIA
Mzwanele Manyi denies Gupta link in bid for broadcast licence
Manyi’s Afrotone Media is under fire as it bids for free-to-air television broadcasting licence
Mzwanele Manyi’s Afrotone Media has distanced itself from the Gupta family as the company bids to win an individual commercial free-to-air television broadcasting service and radio frequency spectrum licence. The SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) have called on the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) not to grant the company the licence, citing, among others, its links to the Guptas. The organisations said given that free-to-air licences were granted infrequently — this would only be the second in SA’s history — and because they used public resources in the form of frequencies, they believed it was important to apply great scrutiny to those granted such licences. Manyi recently rebranded ANN7 to Afro Worldview, while The New Age (TNA) newspaper changed its name to Afro Voice. The Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments announced in late 2017 its withdrawal from its media interests‚ selling its shareholding in Infinity Media (ANN7) and...
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