ANN7, a news channel on MultiChoice's DStv platform which made its debut with dubious quality and is which is mired in an ongoing litany of on-air mistakes, is being run by Infinity Media, in which the politically connected Gupta family has an interest as well as Duduzane Zuma, the son of president Jacob Zuma.
Eyewitness News (EWN) reports that Indian workers brought in as ANN7 newsroom staff are working in South Africa illegally.
The names of workers from India brought in by Infinity Media as ANN7 newsroom staff which Eyewitness News checked with the department of home affairs, list their reason as being in South Africa as "holiday".
The department of home affairs told Eyewitness News that the people from India applied for a visitor's visa and that with the type of visa granted, employment and working in South Africa is prohibited.
Earlier in the month the ANN7 news boss Rajesh Sundaram fled the Midrand-based headquarters of the highly embarrassing news channel.
Hiding in a hotel, the former senior executive working at ANN7 claimed that workers who've been working for 14 to 15 hours a day have been called "monkeys", that the equipment to run a channel such as ANN7 was "still not all in", that staff have not been properly trained, and that there are visa irregularities in that workers are working illegally.
ANN7's group chief executive, Nazeem Howa, then said "Rajesh Sundaram has made several outlandish allegations which are not worthy of a response" and also dismissed reports of visa irregularities.
ANN7 did not respond to a Channel24 media enquiry seeking comment and clarity on ANN7 worker visas and whether workers from India followed the correct visa application procedure, or whether the channel can confirm that all ANN7 staff have the proper working visa accreditation.
