The Communications Department spent nearly R1 million on a business briefing held by the Gupta-owned newspaper The New Age last year.
Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo revealed this in a written response to a question from the DA’s Christian Hunsinger.
“The Department of Communications spent R988689.84 on a business breakfast briefing held on May 26, 2016 which was organised by the newspaper,” Dlodlo said.
The expenditure was incurred while Faith Muthambi was the minister.
The revelation has prompted the official opposition to call for a boycott of Gupta-owned media, TNA and ANN7.
“It is not a secret that the Gupta-owned TNA, is propped up by the millions it receives from government departments and state-owned companies that sponsor its breakfast briefings, buy-in-bulk copies of its newspaper and spend disproportionately on adverts in the newspaper,” DA spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said yesterday.
She claimed that the Gupta media were kept alive by taxpayers and cited instances where they, the department and the Free State government, splashed funding on them.
Van Damme said that since the Gupta email scandal began the Gupta media had been doing everything to deflect and distract the public from the truth.
“It is time to stop giving the New Age and ANN7 the time of day, and see them for what they are: the Guptas’ own closed-circuit television.
“It is time to stop all funding of ANN7 and The New Age, to put a stop to the Guptas’ propaganda campaign.”.
The New Age’s business briefings are subject to review as the interim board of the SABC implements the list of recommendation of the ad hoc committee of inquiry.
Last month, interim board member Krish Naidoo told the communications committee that they had written to The New Age requesting a meeting to discuss contracts they entered into with the SABC, among others.
This was in compliance with the ad hoc committee recommendation that the interim board evaluate the feasibility of the business case for entering into agreements with rival broadcasters such as ANN7 and DSTV.
“Where such contractual arrangements are diverting resources from the SABC, such contracts must be renegotiated or terminated,” it said.
During the hearings of the parliamentary inquiry, stakeholders such as Right2Know and SOS Coalition, had called for the termination of the relationship between the SABC and The New Age.
The inquiry heard conflicting evidence regarding the SABC’s involvement in the TNA business breakfasts.
Former acting chief executive Phil Molefe testified that former chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng had initiated meetings with The New Age’s Tony Gupta in July 2011.
The discussions, Molefe said, centred on the SABC allowing TNA to air live broadcasts of its business breakfasts on Morning Live and a “huge” subscription to the New Age.
Ex-SABC journalist Vuyo Mvoko gave evidence that SABC resources were diverted to fund ANN7 and the business briefings generated no revenue.
These claims were disputed by former board chairperson Ben Ngubane.