MULTICHOICE AND ANN7
From November: Koos, do you now hear concerns of Naspers investors?
Koos Bekker is surely not proud of the way he has ignored evidence that the group’s relationship with the Guptas is damaging to Naspers and SA
As the chief investment officer of a fund manager with a substantial investment in Naspers, I have been engaging with chairman Koos Bekker since July regarding the ANN7 "news channel" carried by MultiChoice, a company controlled by Naspers. Despite us raising legitimate concerns over the relationship between ANN7 and Naspers and MultiChoice, we have been unable to get an undertaking that the matter will be re-examined. In fact, Bekker ended his last e-mail to me with the words: "I’m afraid I can’t help you and am terminating this discussion." I now note with alarm that some of the concerns we raised with him are the subject of media reports. These articles appear to allege or imply that MultiChoice made payments to ANN7 (at the time owned by the Gupta family) to incentivise the channel or the Guptas to influence government communications policy. He deflected my inquiry to MultiChoice CEO Imtiaz Patel. I replied, saying this was a corporate governance matter and not an operational ma...
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