To see why the ANC wants to clamp down on media freedom and effectively squash investigative journalism through its Protection of Information Bill, the proposed state-funded media appeals tribunal and a number of other legislative efforts, you simply had to open up a newspaper over the past week.
President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane Zuma, along with the increasingly infamous Gupta family, pulled a show stopper when their company Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) was awarded ArcelorMittal’s lapsed stake in Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine, only to sell it back to ArcelorMittal in what has been described as “the most toxic empowerment deal ever”.
ArcelorMittal has agreed to buy ICT for R800 million, should this politically very well connected company manage legally convert its prospecting right to a mining right – something Kumba is fighting in the courts. ICT’s shareholders also received a 50% stake in ArcelorMittal’s R9 billion BEE deal, according to Times Live. One of the beneficiaries called it “money for jam”.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has gone as far as calling the deal a looting scheme by “well-connected BEE parasites”.
In a piece by the Sunday Times that will certainly reverberate through the country for a while yet, former President Thabo Mbeki and the ruling party is linked directly to the setting up of Schabir Shaik’s business empire.
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