The African National Congress (ANC)’s national chairperson Gwede Mantashe says the party’s relationship with the Gupta family started when Thabo Mbeki was president.
He was testifying before the state capture commission of inquiry on Wednesday.
Mantashe told the commission that shortly after their arrival in the country, Ajay Gupta became a member of Mbeki’s economic advisory team.
He says the family proposed the idea of owning a newspaper and a television station to the ANC – which the party accepted.
ANC accepted the proposal because it wanted to create diversity in the media – Mantashe adds.
He says ANN7 and The New Age extensively covered ANC programmes.
“Around 2010, the family approached the ANC with a proposal to establish a newspaper and television channel. The proposal was entertained. The establishe[ment] of ANN7 and The New Age was in our view, just such an opportunity.
“In fact, the name of the newspaper – New Age – was proposed by the ANC officials, after a well-known struggle newspaper of the 1950s. Once established, all newspapers and television channels have much-needed coverage of programmes of the ANC.”
After the Zondo commission was granted a three-month extension in February, it will now complete its report by 30 June, following an initial deadline of March.
The commission said it had lost three months owing to the Covid-19 lockdown.
It was established in 2018 to investigate allegations of state capture, corruption, fraud and other allegations in the public sector including organs of state.