TZANEEN – Two women, believed to be in their late 30s, were killed when their car veered off the road and rolled several times along the Bushvalley Road near Tarentaalrand in Tzaneen in Limpopo late on Saturday afternoon, paramedics said.

“Shortly before 5pm, paramedics from ER24 and other services arrived on the scene where they found the vehicle several metres into a nearby veld. Sadly, both occupants of the vehicle [had] already succumbed to their injuries,” ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak said.

African News Agency

The SACP is adamant that it will not go into coalition with the ANC – preferring even the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – should it emerge victorious in its bid to win the Metsimaholo Local Municipality, Free State, where the two alliance partners will go head to head on the ballot paper.

A panic-stricken ANC failed in its last-ditch attempt to convince its long-time allies, the communist party, not to go to the ballot solo at Wednesday’s municipal by-elections in the Free State.

City Press heard that indications were that the SACP was aiming to walk away with some seats in the Sasolburg council and make inroads in four of the 21 wards it is contesting.

With alliance relations in tatters, the ANC failed to persuade the SACP to withdraw in a meeting of the Alliance Political Council convened last Monday.

SACP leaders were worried that aligning with the ANC would be tantamount to selling out, given the fact that furious community members don’t want any power-sharing deals with the governing party.

The rebellious SACP has fielded 42 candidates in the Metsimaholo Local Municipality and is likely to look to the EFF for a partner or other organisations that want to see a clean and effective government that delivers to the poor.

EFF insiders, however, will view coalition talks with the SACP with some suspicion.

Their view is that the SACP’s allegiance to presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa could collapse the municipality in the event that Ramaphosa wins at the ANC’s elective conference next month.

There is a belief that the SACP could give power back to the ANC if Ramaphosa is victorious, leaving the EFF high and dry.

SACP deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila said Metsimaholo residents were the same people who piled the pressure on them to contest elections independently and that they could not turn and spit in their faces.

“The local comrades must be given that space to decide. We have also allowed them to choose a candidate mayor – only this morning I was introduced to him,” he said.

However, no deal will be negotiated with their “class enemies” such as the DA and Freedom Front Plus.

“We are contesting elections for the people of Metsimaholo, that message is extremely important. They have asked us to enter the race, we didn’t just decide on our own.”

Damage control

There was a last-minute rush to do damage control this week after the SACP refused to back down from the contest.

Party heavyweights met with alliance partners and their structures in Metsimaholo on Thursday to try to salvage the situation and resolve tensions which flared among alliance members.

The province was instructed to organise a venue and invite members to the gathering which was held at Harry Gwala Multipurpose Centre where SACP members were in a minority.

So dire was the situation that even President Jacob Zuma halted other proceedings and flew in on a helicopter solely for this crucial meeting.

Mapaila told City Press the meeting discussed how to deal with another conundrum – an ANC constitutional provision that bars members from contesting against the ANC.

The meeting resolved that every member would have to decide on their own behalf whether to vote for the SACP or the ANC on the ballot come Wednesday.

This week, Mapaila had to dampen fires caused by what he said was disinformation already being peddled by ANC members that the SACP was merely fronting for the ANC.

The bone of contention in the community was around the imposition of councillors by the ANC and the dismissal of workers in 2013, who were only re-employed last month after the communists confronted the ANC
in the area.

It followed a warning from the SACP that it would not support any imposed candidates in the local government elections.

Mapaila said the ANC could have averted this but it became arrogant and kept shifting the goalposts in attending to problems raised by the workers and community.

No political party won a majority of the vote after last year’s fiercely contested local government elections, forcing parties to enter into a power-sharing deal.

The ANC got 19 seats, the DA 12, the EFF eight, the Metsimaholo Community Association (MCA) got two, while the Freedom Front Plus got one seat.

The municipality’s formed coalition government was dissolved in July after it failed to adopt its 2017/18 budget and later on when its then MCA mayor, Sello Hlasa, defected to the ANC.

The SACP is contesting all 21 wards and its candidates include respected individuals in the community who are not members of the party.

JOHANNESBURG – The Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown refuted allegations levelled against her by former Eskom board chairperson Zola Tsotsi that she had met and had dealings with the Gupta family.

In a statement released on Friday, Brown maintained that she has never consulted with anyone on her executive functions.

READ: Eskom’s Koko prepares to tell all

“I have never consulted with anyone on my executive functions, not Tony Gupta or Salim Essa or anyone else”, she said.

“Why would I hand over functions to anyone else? As far as the board appointments I report to cabinet, and cabinet decides who serves on the boards,” she said.

The minister was responding to allegations made by Tsotsi at the Eskom inquiry on November 22. Among these were that Tony Gupta threatened to fire Tsotsi during a meeting. He also revealed how the Guptas influenced the appointment of board members at the parastatal.

eNCA

Johannesburg – MultiChoice, the pay-TV company that owns DStv and M-Net, made a questionable payment of R25m to the Guptas’ controversial ANN7 channel, the #GuptaLeaks show.

In addition, MultiChoice increased its annual payment to ANN7 from R50m to R141m.

The payments came after the family seemingly assisted former communications minister Faith Muthambi in getting President Jacob Zuma to transfer certain broadcasting powers to her, something MultiChoice was lobbying the minister for.

ALSO READ: #GuptaLeaks: How Ajay Gupta was trusted with crafting SA’s global image

Following the transfer of powers, Muthambi controversially pushed through a decision in favour of unencrypted set-top boxes, which benefitted MultiChoice.

Muthambi’s decision flouted her own party’s policy on the issue. The ANC supported encryption – required for pay-TV – to promote competition in the sector.

After a lengthy court battle, the Constitutional Court earlier this year ruled that it was within Muthambi’s right to make policy decisions affecting the broadcasting sector.

MultiChoice however deny that there is any relationship between the policy outcome in its favour and payments made to ANN7. In a statement, the company said: “MultiChoice rejects your insinuations in the strongest possible terms.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPANY’S FULL RESPONSE

The #GuptaLeaks reveal that: 

 – MultiChoice executive Clarissa Mack (who had since resigned) sent policy documents directly to Muthambi, who shared them with Gupta lieutenant Ashu Chawla, setting out proposals for Zuma to transfer broadcasting powers back to Muthambi after he split the communications portfolio into two departments in 2014;

– In September 2015, six months after Muthambi confirmed there would be no encryption, MultiChoice increased its annual payment to the Guptas’ controversial ANN7 channel from R50m to R141m – at a time when the channel had failed to win a significant slice of DStv’s news audience, and whilst the channel received widespread criticism over the quality of its content;

 – MultiChoice CEO Imtiaz Patel was once a director of a company with the youngest Gupta brother, Tony, and Zuma’s son Duduzane. Patel says his appointment was done without his permission, and CIPC records show that he resigned from the company on the same day he was appointed.

New ANN7 owner Mzwanele Manyi, who took over the station this year in a vendor-financed deal, said: “The so-called Gupta emails have NOT been authenticated. What if all this is part of a larger plot designed to undermine alternative voices as in ANN7?”

The Guptas did not respond to questions but have previously dismissed the #GuptaLeaks as “not authentic”.

Pay for Play

MultiChoice has been in the news this week for paying the Guptas R50m per annum for ANN7.

The pay-TV giant denied signing a “third channel amendment agreement” which would have taken ANN7’s annual income from MultiChoice to R150m, but neglected to disclose the existence of a “fourth channel amendment agreement”.

This document was unearthed in-between the more than 200 000 emails that have become known as the #GuptaLeaks.

The agreement was signed by MultiChoice’s Glen Marques and Nazeem Howa for Infinity Media Networks, ANN7’s holding company, on September 9, 2015.

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The agreement not only ensured that MultiChoice would fork out R141m a year for ANN7 from April 1, 2016, but also guaranteed the Gupta-controlled company a “once off amount” of R25m.

This had to be paid to Infinity within seven days of the contract being signed, according to the agreement.

Two broadcasting insiders who had previously been involved in MultiChoice’s negotiations with news channels say such a “once off amount” is unheard of in the industry.

“The once-off fee you refer to is a pro rata payment in terms of an amendment agreement. The amendment agreement was entered into in order to assist with improving production quality,” MultiChoice said about the payment.

ALSO READ: #GuptaLeaks: How the family encircled Lynne Brown

MultiChoice also maintains that its fee for ANN7 represented a “fair value” at the time of signing the fourth contract amendment, given the cost of running a 24-hour news channel.

“After several rounds of negotiations over a period of three years, during which we developed an understanding of the channel’s operating costs and the need for improvements in production quality over time, the final fee was set,” says MultiChoice.

MultiChoice admits that it made policy proposals to Muthambi, but the company says the majority of its suggestions were not taken up in later amendments to government legislation.

The company also denies that it was aware that Muthambi was forwarding MultiChoice’s suggestions to the Guptas.

“MultiChoice has absolutely no knowledge of the minister sending our proposals to any other person, and can in no way be held responsible for that,” says the company.

The issue at hand involves a long-running battle over whether government should favour either encrypted or unencrypted set-top boxes for the country’s digital migration process.

Critics of a policy supporting unencrypted set-top boxes argue that would-be rivals of MultiChoice can only compete with the latter’s DStv service if government enforces the roll-out of encrypted devices.

In December 2013, then-communications minister Yunus Carrim published proposed amendments to government’s digital migration policy that opened the door for encrypted set-top boxes.

But Carrim would not have the last say on the matter.

MultiChoice fingerprints in the #GuptaLeaks

After having created the separate departments of communications and telecommunications in May 2014, Zuma issued a presidential proclamation that transferred certain regulatory powers from Muthambi to Siyabonga Cwele, the then-telecommunications minister.

On July 18, 2014, only three days after the proclamation was published in the government gazette, Muthambi sent an email to known Gupta associate Ashu Chawla. She attached the government gazette containing the proclamation.

Minutes later, Muthambi again emailed Chawla, this time attaching a Microsoft Word document titled “Effect of presidential proclamation”. The document was forwarded by Chawla to Tony Gupta on the same day.

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The document’s metadata reveals that its creator was Clarissa Mack, MultiChoice’s then-group executive for regulatory and policy affairs. Mack created the document on July 17, the day before Muthambi forwarded it to Chawla. Mack was also the last person to have modified the file.

Mack wrote that when Zuma created the two departments, there was an “assumption … that broadcasting including digital migration would report to the Minister of Communications”.

“The proclamation published on 15 July 2014 did not give effect to this division,” complained Mack. She also made detailed suggestions with regards to how the relevant decision-making powers should be split between Muthambi’s and Cwele’s departments.

Mack’s letter made it clear that MultiChoice wanted key powers guaranteed by parts of the Electronic Communications Act to be transferred back to Muthambi.

“Broadcasting is regulated by the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No 36 of 2005). The ability to make broadcasting policy and issue broadcasting policy directions are set out in section 3 of this Act. These powers have been transferred from the Minister of Communications to the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services,” Mack stated.

“It is therefore the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Service [Cwele] who will make policy and issue policy directives to Icasa for broadcasting, including public service broadcasting,” Mack added.

Muthambi lobbies the Guptas

Over the course of the next few months, Muthambi would send Chawla four other documents relating to broadcasting policy. Chawla forwarded most of these to Tony Gupta and Duduzane Zuma, the president’s son.

On July 25, Muthambi sent Chawla a Word document called “proclamtion [sic] new 18 July 2014”.

MultiChoice has admitted that this document was also penned by Mack.

Chawla forwarded the document to Tony Gupta and Duduzane Zuma on the same day. The document stipulated in detail which aspects of the Electronic Communications Act Muthambi wanted to be moved from Cwele back to her.

“These sections must be transferred to the Minister of Communications,” Muthambi wrote to Chawla.

The document specifically focused on the parts of the Act dealing with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), one of the key government bodies involved in the digital television migration process.

ALSO READ: #GuptaLeaks: How the Guptas paid for Zuma home

Muthambi also sent Chawla a Word document called “Responsibility for Infraco and Sentech” on July 25, adding in her email that “Sentech’s signal distribution must rest with the Ministry of Communications”. Apart from Icasa, Sentech is a key role-player in the digital migration process, whilst Broadband Infraco is a state-owned telecommunications company.

This document was also created by Mack, according to MultiChoice.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of Muthambi’s communications with Chawla came in the form of a document called “final proclamation 01 August”, sent by the minister to the Gupta associate on the date mentioned in the document’s title.

“See attached Proclamation that President must sign,” Muthambi wrote Chawla, who subsequently forwarded it to Tony Gupta.

The proposed proclamation stipulated that control over section 3 of the Electronic Communications Act needed to be transferred back to Muthambi, exactly as Mack had originally pleaded in her letter.

It also included the proposed changes to the Icasa Act that Muthambi had earlier sent to Chawla.

Asked whether Mack had also created this document, MultiChoice said: “As mentioned previously, MultiChoice, like other companies in the sector, regularly engages the industry regulator and government on matters that affect the broadcasting sector. This includes making proposals that may take a specific regulatory or legislative form. Yes, this document was sent to Ms Muthambi. The proposals were inserted in a legislative template we took from previous Proclamations in the Government Gazette. Again, many of our proposals were rejected.”

Muthambi uses her powers

On November 25, Zuma signed proclamation 79 of 2014. With the stroke of a pen, Zuma gave legislative effect to the transfer of some of the powers advocated for in Mack’s documents.

Muthambi wasted little time to make use of her newly-won policy powers. In March 2015, she stunned the broadcasting industry by issuing an amendment to government’s digital migration policy that went directly against her own party’s stance on the matter.

The new set-top boxes would “not have capabilities to encrypt broadcast signals,” declared a clause Muthambi inserted in the amendment.

Only two months before, at the ANC’s January lekgotla, the ruling party stated that it supported Carrim’s December 2013 policy, which had paved the way for encrypted set-top boxes.

In her response to News24, Muthambi admitted that she had received “submissions” from MultiChoice “sent … through Ms Mack”. But Muthambi says that she had “opened the door” for such submissions after the July 2014 proclamation caused “confusion and uncertainty” over which of the two departments would be responsible for broadcasting policy.

“The minister denies having been influenced by any person in the finalisation of the digital migration policy after consideration of all submissions by all interested parties…” Muthambi’s spokesperson said in a statement.

MultiChoice also said that it was one of “several stakeholders” who made submissions to the minister. Neither MultiChoice nor the minister indicated which other parties, apart from MultiChoice, made submissions to her office.

Muthambi also failed to address News24’s detailed queries about the emails she had sent to Chawla.

ANN7’s MultiChoice bonanza

On December 4, 2014, about a week after Zuma transferred the relevant broadcasting policy powers to Muthambi, Howa sent Tony Gupta a draft “third channel amendment agreement” for the deal between MultiChoice and Infinity.

This is the unsigned document that recently surfaced in the media.

The signed “fourth channel amendment agreement”, however, reveals that MultiChoice first agreed to increase the ANN7 fee to R100m per annum, before ultimately settling on an amount of R141m.

But it is the “once off” payment of R25m that has industry insiders most concerned.

“It is unheard of. I haven’t seen any once-off payments [in] any of the agreements with MultiChoice that I’d been privy to,” said one of the industry insiders.

The two sources, along with a third industry expert with direct knowledge of MultiChoice’s agreements with news channels, all agree that even R50m per year would constitute a bad investment for MultiChoice.

“What they pay ANN7 compared to what they get from it [the agreement] makes no commercial sense. It is such a bad channel and its viewership is so low that ANN7 actually needs to pay DStv to be on their platform,” said one of the sources.

Data obtained from the Broadcasting Research Council (BRC) shows that ANN7 secured only 8.93% of DStv’s news audience in 2014, and 10.98% in 2015. Its average daily viewership figures for 2014 and 2015 were 6 215 and 8 157 respectively.

SABC News held news audience shares of 19.90% (2014) and 22.46% (2015) and it drew 12 379 and 15 412 average daily viewers in those two years.

eNCA’s average daily viewership was 29 481 (2014) and 32 265 (2015) and it had a news audience share of 54.28% in 2014 and 52.71% in 2015.

Despite ANN7’s relatively low audience figures, MultiChoice maintains that it believed the fee increases were justified.

“We believe the fee represented fair value at the time, particularly considering that ANN7 was a start-up channel requiring significant initial investment to get off the ground – as opposed to others, who could leverage existing infrastructure and content,” said MultiChoice.

“We deny that there is any relationship between our submission on the proclamation, the channel supply agreement for ANN7, and any fees or increase in fees paid for that channel.”

Asked about his relationship with the Guptas, Patel said he couldn’t remember when he first met the Guptas.

“I did interact with them, in particular between approximately 2007-2010, and our relationship tapered off after that. I can’t recall attending any Gupta social functions after about 2010, except for the wedding in 2013,” said Patel.

• News24 is published by Media24. Both Media24 and MultiChoice are Naspers companies.

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Port Elizabeth – The sister of murder accused Christopher Panayiotou asked the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth on Thursday not to sentence him to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife.

Addressing the court on behalf of the Panayiotou family, Kalleope Panayiotou said there was more to the accused than what had been revealed in the media.

Her brother was found guilty of murder, after arranging to have his wife Jayde killed.

His co-accused, Sinethemba Nenembe, was also found guilty of murder and robbery, while Zolani Sibeko was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

Giving a bit of the accused’s background, Kalleope said that he had played first team hockey and was a prefect at his school in Uitenhage.

He was described as a hard and dedicated worker, with a keen business sense.

She recounted how, on a school trip, her brother had helped carry the gear of a friend who was not feeling well. This, she said, showed that he was a loving, compassionate and caring person.

Kalleope said the family loved Jayde and missed her dearly.

 “We would like this court to know that we all loved Jayde dearly. She was an integral part of both our family and extended family. We feel the void that her death has left every day,” she said.

Family received death threats

However, she added that the family had been subjected to ongoing public onslaught and vile criticism, and even received death threats.

“Social media continues to crucify us. Despite receiving death threats, letters to our work places and homes, and being confronted in public spaces, we still keep quiet and to ourselves,” she said.

Ask for a lesser sentence

Kalleope added that her brother had co-operated with the police.

“He has always had impeccable manners and been a polite gentleman.”

“Although we respect the judgment of the court, as a loving family who chooses to support their son and brother and not desert him in his hour of need, we humbly ask for mercy in giving a lesser sentence than life,” she said.

Addressing her brother directly, Kalleope said his family supported him.

“We love you and will stand by your side. Have faith. We do not harbour any hate and hope that everyone eventually finds peace in some way.”

Panayiotou a psychopath

In his closing argument, state prosecutor Marius Stander submitted that, while Panayiotou may have been a kind man, he also had a very dark side.

“To stand up at a funeral and praise her and say that she was everything in his life, and then to watch the video. He falls closer to being a psychopath than a kind person,” he said.

Panayiotou’s defence advocate Terry Price objected to this, saying there was no evidence before the court that his client was a psychopath.

Stander said evidence showed Panayiotou had hired a vehicle for hitman Sizwe Vumazonke on April 8, 2015, which meant that, for 13 days he slept in the same bed as Jayde, knowing that she was marked for death. He still never backed out.

“I grow cold thinking what must have gone through her mind in the moments leading up to her death. This was a cold-blooded, execution murder,” he said.

Judge Dayalin Chetty is expected to impose a sentence at 9:30 on Friday.

Read Kalleope’s full statement below

Good morning my lord

My Lord, I’d like to kindly request that no photographs or recordings are taken

This address is not from me personally, but from all of us in the family.

I just wanted to thank this honourable court for allowing us to address this court on behalf of the Panayiotou family. A meaningful quote, whose source is unknown, reads as follows: “Family… where life begins and where love never ends.” This epitomises the close bond that holds our family together. We would like this court to know that we all loved Jayde dearly. She was an integral part of both our family and extended family. Christopher and Jayde’s relationship spanned a period of 10 years. Jayde and our family shared endless happy times together over these years. We feel the void that her death has left every day. We miss her dearly.

As a family, we, and we have no doubt the Inggs family [Jayde’s family] in particular, suffer the loss of Jayde constantly. We have respectfully not reacted to the ongoing public onslaught and often vile criticisms against our family. As if Jayde’s death and Christopher being found guilty are not enough for us to bare, social media continues to crucify us. Despite receiving death threats, letters to our work places and homes and being confronted in public spaces we still keep quiet and to ourselves. Our turmoil of emotions, also continue.

There is a lot more to Christopher as a person than how he is portrayed in the media. We were brought up in Uitenhage and are a close tight-knit family. This is evident in the support we have had from all our family members – grandparents, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. We were brought up with a lot of respect and love. Christopher attended school in Uitenhage, where he was elected as a prefect in his final year and he represented the school as a first team hockey player.

We will never forget when Christopher was at school and he went on a school camp which all the senior learners attend. One of his group members was not feeling well and could no longer hike up the mountain (an approximately 24km hike), Christopher carried his gear and assisted him all the way to the top and continuously made sure he was by his side. This shows that Christopher is a loving, compassionate and a caring person. This is also evident from quotes from his teachers in an article written and titled “Gentle Giant”.

After school, he attended college and completed his Business Management Diploma. He then worked as an estate agent temporarily and a medical rep thereafter. He was hard-working and always reached his goals. Furthermore he worked as a manager in one of the retail supermarkets and was dedicated. He always wanted the best for his workplace. During this time he was elected as the Greek youth committee president for two consecutive years, where his main drive in organising events to fundraise towards the local community as well as contributing towards bursary funds for underprivileged youth.

Christopher, together with our father and uncle then decided to buy the OK Grocer in Algoa Park. Christopher always had good business sense and the day to day running of the business was left to him. He managed to quadruple the turnover and changed the business completely. We have worked with him in the family business and we can truly say that we have learnt a lot from him as he was committed and took pride in everything he did.

Christopher has taken everything that has come his way and cooperated with the police as testified by police officers in this case. He has always had impeccable manners and been a polite gentleman.

Although we respect the judgement of the court, as a loving family who chooses to support their son and brother and not desert him in his hour of need, we humbly ask for mercy in giving a lesser sentence than life.

To our brother and son, know that your family is supporting you. We love you and will stand by your side. Have faith. We do not harbour any hate and hope that everyone eventually finds peace in some way.

That is all, my lord.