Businessman Nazeer Noormohamed is considering cancelling the purchase of the former Afro Worldview and ANN7 building in Midrand, Johannesburg that he acquired through an auction process after its been stripped of assets that had been ripped out.
The building in Midrand housed the offices of The New Age newspaper and the studio of the controversial ANN7 channel from the now-notorious Gupta family that was broadcast on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.
ANN7 was rebranded to Afro Worldview by Mzwanele Manyi, chairperson of Afrotone Media Holdings, who took over the channel from the Guptas, with MultiChoice that made a decision to dump the controversial TV channel from DStv, effectively shuttering the loss-making AfroWorldview and The New Age that got put up for auction in 2018.
On Sunday the City Press newspaper reported that the building had been stripped of a range of valuable items, ranging from satellite broadcasting hardware to air conditioning units.
"After learning that the assets of the property were being stripped, on behalf of the existing tenant or their representatives, we called the auctioneers, who said that they were not responsible for securing the building," Nazeer Noormohamed is quoted as saying in City Press, who found 15 air-conditioners taken away and loaded onto a truck when he visited the Midrand property.
A large, central cooling system had also been removed from the Midrand building, including 3 large transformers that were bolted to the ground.
Nazeer Noormohamed would still buy the building but only if all the fixed assets are returned and reinstalled, and is demanding that the R8 million deposit he had paid for the building be returned after he bid R29.5 million for the building.
Meanwhile Mzwanele Manyi told City Press that he had "moved on" with Sifiso Mthethwa, the company's director who said that only moveable assets were removed from the Midrand building.
Nazeer Noormohamed owns a TV channel as well as local newspapers in Pretoria.
