New Age and ANN7 will have ‘integrity and honesty’‚ says new owner

Mzwanele Manyi who has bought the New Age and ANN7 from the Guptas’ Oakbay investments gave an interview to Power FM in which he said he would be creating jobs in the media as an example to other media companies.

Manyi purchased the companies for R450-million through vendor financing‚ which means the Guptas lent him the money to buy the companies. There is speculation that this is because the Bank of Baroda is closing the Oakbay bank accounts at the end of this month and it may not have bank accounts available.

TimesLIVE has been unable to reach Manyi and he has not responded to smses‚ whatsapp messages and calls.

But he said on air his vendor-financing deal was above board and that he couldn’t reveal details of the deal. He said his house was on "the line".

He also told the radio station he would be creating jobs which is what other media houses should be doing and would comply with the press code. The newspaper and TV station would have "integrity" and "honesty" he said on Power FM.

He said that this was his company Lodidox's first deal and it was quite new. A search of the Company Intellectual Property Commission shows the company was registered in 2012 by Christian Gouws‚ who registers shelf companies and sells them later.

Manyi became an active director in June and Gouws resigned.

The company is registered at a residential property in Meadowlands‚ Soweto.