The ongoing blooper-filled South African 24-hour TV news channel ANN7 (DStv 405) now plans to take the former senior ANN7 editor Rajesh Sundaram to court who fled the "GuptaTV" news operation based in Midrand in September shortly after its disastrous launch, claiming irregularities, inexperienced staff and intimidation.
Rajesh Sundaram is writing an explosive tell-all book, provisionally entitled Indentured, revealing insider's details about the alleged amateurish and unprofessional ANN7's start-up months just prior to its launch on MultiChoice's DStv platform in September.
ANN7, nicknamed "GuptaTV and Gupta News" is run by Infinity Media, cash-flushed by the politically connected Gupta family and president Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane Zuma.
On Friday ANN7 indicated it will take legal action against Rajesh Sundaram who was a senior executive there and a consulting editor, for what it calls the "hiccups" ANN7 experienced when the news channel started to broadcast.
Infinity Media claims that Rajesh Sundaram is responsible for the problems ANN7 experienced during its launch due to neglecting his duties.
ANN7 launched with a myriad of on-air mistakes making use of on-air, production and technical personnel who apparently have little television and TV news experience. Infinity Media didn't respond to a media enquiry.
Rajesh Sundaram says the looming legal battle is a gag attempt to try and prevent him from exposing the irregularities at ANN7 he was aware of such as workers from India working in South Africa without having obtained the proper visas.
