Sunday, November 26, 2017

Democratic Alliance party calls for parliamentary inquiry into MultiChoice, ANN7 and Faith Muthambi; wants MultiChoice to publicly release its Gupta-TV contracts and dealings.


The Democratic Alliance (DA) political party is calling on MultiChoice to publicly release its Gupta contract for the controversial ANN7 (DStv 405) channel that DStv subscribers are paying R141.38 million per year for, and wants a public parliamentary inquiry to be held about the contract, MultiChoice's questionable payments of millions, and the involvement of the former minister of communications, Faith Muthambi.

The DA political party's call for a parliamentary inquiry into MultiChoice is similar to the call by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party also asking for  a parliamentary inquiry into MultiChoice's allegedly "corrupt" and "unethical" dealings with the controversial Gupta family and its highly-criticised ANN7 channel.

The calls for a parliamentary inquiry comes after fresh #GuptaLeaks revelations of the hundreds of millions of rand MultiChoice has been paying the controversial Gupta family who are linked to State Capture in South Africa.

"The DA calls on MultiChoice to publicly release the full contracts it entered into with the Gupta-owed TV station, ANN7, as well as the record of the prior negotiations," says Phumzile Van Damme, Democratic Alliance member of parliament.

"If there is indeed nothing untoward about the nature of its dealings with the Gupta family, MultiChoice will have no issue publishing the requested documents for public scrutiny."

"Should it fail to do so within 48 hours, the DA will request that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) force it to do so."

"In terms of Faith Muthambi's unsurprising involvement, the DA will write to the chairperson of parliament's communications committee, Humphrey Maxegwana, requesting that the now overdue inquiry into state capture, as was requested of the committee by the deputy speaker of parliament, Lechesa Tsenoli, be scheduled as the first item on the committee's agenda in 2018."

Phumzile Van Damme says "the DA looks forward to MultiChoice's feedback and questioning of Faith Muthambi during the inquiry."

"This time she cannot be allowed to escape without being held accountable, if wrongdoing is found."