The New Age to go under the hammer

Once owned by the controversial Gupta family, The New Age newspaper will on Wednesday go under the hammer after its liquidation was finalised.

In his testimony before the state capture commission on Tuesday, Mzwanele Manyi – who briefly acquired the newspaper from the Guptas through vendor financing – said that his high court application to liquidate the newspaper had been finalised. He said the auction would take place on Wednesday.

The application was lodged by Manyi’s AfroTone Media. Earlier this year, the high court in Pretoria placed the newspaper under provisional liquidation.

Business Day previously reported that in his affidavit to the court, asking for the provisional liquidation, Manyi said that from February 2018 — when Zuma was replaced by President Cyril Ramaphosa — to June 2018, TNA’s revenue declined from R5,173,646 to R255,650.

Manyi said the company was in a “dire financial position” and conducted its business in “insolvent circumstances”.

Advocate Vincent Maleka, who is leading Manyi’s evidence at the commission, also asked him questions around two CVs he had forwarded via email to associates of the Gupta family in 2014.

The first of the CVs was sent by Manyi to Sahara chief executive Ashu Chawla in September 2014. The second was sent by Manyi to Oakbay group executive Nazeem Howa in November that year.

Probed about the emails, Manyi asked: “What is the business of this commission in this issue?”