MultiChoice drops ANN7 amid Icasa investigation

MultiChoice announced today that it will not be renewing the contract of the 24-hour news channel ANN7. The contract expires in August.

CEO Calvo Mawela said at a press briefing that “mistakes were made with regards to lobbying process and failure to do due diligence”.

MultiChoice says it will not review ANN7’s contract amid investigations into alleged corruption

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is currently investigating MultiChoice after the DA lodged a complaint against it in November last year.

Icasa will be looking into payments made by the company to ANN7 and the SABC, allegedly in exchange for political influence over digital migration policies.

An internal review by MultiChoice “found no evidence of corruption or illegal activity”.

ANN7 was previously owned by the infamous Gupta family, currently embroiled in a state capture scandal. The channel, along with newspaper The New Age, was sold to Mzwanele Manyi for R450-million in August last year.

MultiChoice says it will be looking for a new black-owned TV channel to replace it.

The company’s South African branch created a Twitter account to deliver the news. Its first tweet proffered a link to a full statement on the situation.

We’ve today released the findings of the board review about our relationship with ANN7. You can read our full statement here: https://t.co/Sx0MJ7eo3I

— MultiChoice SA (@MultiChoiceSA) January 31, 2018