The eNCA (DStv 403) reporter Michael Appel who used to work at the now-shuttered and controversial ANN, in a report on eNCA reveals more of the horrific working conditions and the abuse of staffers which he had personal experience of and that took place at the Gupta family's propaganda TV channel on DStv.
Michael Appel decided to file his report in which he includes personal recollections and experiences of working at ANN7, following the testimony on Monday and Tuesday of Rajesh Sundaram, the former start-up editor at the channel who appeared before the Zondo commission's State Capture Inquiry this week.
Rajesh Sundaram described in detail, similar to his book Indentured, how the Guptas and TV executives flouted labour laws, bypassed South Africa's visa laws, secretly met with former president Jacob Zuma to set up ANN7 on MultiChoice's pay-TV service as a propaganda channel, lied to MultiChoice executives, and how and why ANN7's launch was a disaster and a "trainwreck".
Michael Appel worked at the closed down The New Age newspaper and ANN7 for about half a decade and describes it as "a difficult time in my career that I don't like to think back on".
Michael Appel who worked at the newspaper side of the Guptas' media empire, switched over to ANN7 several months after the disastrous launch of the TV channel in August 2013 and made his TV debut in March 2014.
In his report he shows a work list indicating how he and other ANN7 reporters and journalists were required to work 10 hour shifts for 12 days in a row.
Ethel Williams Abrahamse is a former ANN7 employee who started working at ANN7 three days before it launched.
She told Michael Appel on-camera about how she is still traumatised over the horrific treatment she and staffers were subjected to and recounting specific terrible incidents with executives like former CEO, Nazeem Howa "and his cheap shoes", as well as Atul Gupta's racist tirades and their paranoid actions like installing cameras in the restrooms.
"It was an abusive work environment most of the time," recounts Michael Appel. "Speak up, and you're targeted."
Michael Appel says ANN7 "is a place where careers began, yes, but also a place of suffering degradation".
