JOHANNESBURG – Former Gupta-owned media company TNA appears to have run into trouble, with employees complaining on Monday that they have not been paid.

Journalists at television news station ANN7 and The New Age newspaper told the Africa News Agency (ANA) that their bosses claimed a technical problem was to blame for them not being paid on Monday. 

It comes after MultiChoice announced it will drop ANN7 from its DSTv bouquet in August. 

TNA journalists said the situation was causing them a lot of stress and they were considering downing tools.

In August 2017, the controversial Gupta family sold the media house to Mzwanele Manyi, who could not be reached for comment on the failure to pay salaries.

READ: Dozens bid for new black-owned news channel to replace ANN7

Reports at the time said Gupta-owned Oakbay sold ANN7 and The New Age through a vendor financing agreement to the Manyi-owned firm, Lodidox. This means the Guptas loaned Manyi the money to buy their media entities.

The Gupta brothers – Ajay, Atul and Rajesh – are out of the country. A warrant for the arrest of Ajay Gupta has been issued in connection with corruption related to an unnamed matter. 

A bank account belonging to Atul Gupta has had at least R10-million frozen on suspicion that the money was proceeds of a crime linked to the alleged siphoning of funds meant for empowering poor farmers at the Estina Dairy Farm project in the Free State.

There are no banks left in South Africa willing to do business with the family, with the exception of the Bank of Baroda which has announced that it will soon cease operations in in the country.

So far three Gupta-owned mines – Shiva Uranium, Optimum and Koornfontein – have all failed to pay their workers salaries for February.

African News Agency