Chris Spillane and Franz Wild
HOSKEN Consolidated Investments chief executive John Copelyn told directors that news coverage at e.tv could hurt the South African company’s gaming interests, according to the resignation letter of a former executive at the broadcaster, Bronwyn Keene-Young.
Copelyn told the Hosken board the news agenda of majority-controlled e.tv was “problematic” and should be “reined in” so it would not affect the investment firm’s ability to acquire gambling licences from the government, Keene-Young wrote in the letter to e.tv staff yesterday, obtained by Bloomberg News.
Copelyn also tried to make Keene-Young leave the company after she resisted attempts from Hosken director Yunis Shaik to influence news coverage, she said.
“Copelyn doesn’t tell you that he told me that the line of editorial independence was not one for the news editorial team to determine,” she wrote in the letter. “That line would be determined by HCI.”
Hosken yesterday urged staff at media unit Sabido, which controls e.tv, to maintain editorial independence following the resignation of chairman and co-founder Marcel Golding, who first alleged political interference at e.tv last week.
Copelyn said Golding’s allegations that the government had put pressure on news executives to publish certain stories had threatened e.tv’s credibility, according to another letter obtained by Bloomberg.
Hosken suspended Golding for the purchase of shares in TV-equipment maker Ellies Holdings, which the company said was unauthorised.
He later resigned after failing to have the suspension overturned in court.
Golding said his opposition to political interference was the real reason for the disciplinary action. Copelyn reiterated in his letter that the Ellies share deal was Golding’s sole misdemeanor.
Copelyn learned of the Ellies transaction in early August and waited two months before beginning disciplinary proceedings against Golding, according to Keene-Young, who is named in legal documents as Golding’s spouse.
“He doesn’t tell you that only in early October – two months after Copelyn had become aware of the details of the Ellies matter – did he raise this as a disciplinary issue with Marcel,” she said. “All of a sudden the Ellies issue became serious enough for HCI to suspend Marcel for ‘gross misconduct’ and for Copelyn to lock Marcel out of his office.”
Hosken financial director Kevin Govender has taken over as acting chief executive of Sabido, while Hosken is being managed by a committee of executives that includes Govender and Copelyn. Govender did not immediately respond to a message left on his cellphone.
Golding said in the legal documents that Shaik, a Sabido director, was asked by Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel to compel e.tv to cover the opening of a dam by President Jacob Zuma.
Barbara Hogan, who quit as Hosken board member on Monday, said in her resignation letter that Shaik told her the Southern African Clothing and Textiles Workers’ Union, HCI’s biggest shareholder, had lost patience with e.tv’s lack of coverage of Patel. Hosken shares closed down 1.95 percent at R150.50 yesterday.
Golding owns a stake of about 8 percent in Hosken, according to his legal application against his suspension.
Hosken is a black empowerment investment company jointly founded by Golding and Copelyn with stakes in casinos, hotels and a bus service.
The business was started to take advantage of legislation to make up for discrimination during the apartheid era, when black people were hindered from participating in the economy.
South African laws compel companies to sell stakes to black investors. – Bloomberg