Mugabe’s man unmasked
SA Soccer’s marketing man brokered the deal that saw Naspers print 130 tons of propaganda for Robert Mugabe. Mandy de Waal follows her breaking story.
Mandy de Waal*
25 Jun 2008 07:37
In a week when Naspers (JSE: NPN) should be celebrating buoyant financial results, the multinational media company faces a reputation scandal that sees it linked by a trail of blood money to Robert Mubabe's terror filled tyranny. This after Naspers subsidiary, Paarl Web Gauteng, printed 130 tons of propaganda, worth R2,6m, for Zanu-PF.
Amidst strong media interest and growing public anger, journalists and staffers at the organization petitioned Chairman Ton Vosloo to donate all revenue received from the contract to Zimbabwe relief organizations. Naspers' own Fin24.com reported yesterday that the petition reads: "...we believe that the acceptance of the Zanu-PF contract constitutes, at the very least, a very serious lack of judgment and we would hope that Naspers, as the parent company of Paarl Web, would acknowledge this. We therefore believe it appropriate that the R3m that Paarl Web apparently received for this contract be given to organisations which aims to alleviate the plight of the people of Zimbabwe."
Paarl Web CEO Stephen van der Walt confirmed that some funds would be given to an appropriate charity. "We will find a suitable fund supporting victims and will make a small donation," said van der Walt adding: "I cannot attribute the exact profit figure for the job, but we will donate in the region of R250k to R350k to a suitable fund."
Van der Walt refused to name the broker or individual who brought the job to his company, citing a confidentiality agreement but stated that work on the pamphlet was done by a large Johannesburg based ‘creative house' which did work for Zanu-PF. He added it was a company that regularly placed significant sized jobs with large printers in South Africa, including retail jobs. He said they were a well respected business client and that Paarl Web had done print work for them in the past. He also said that they were not a retailer, and that retailers at times place their work direct with printers and not through their creative agencies.
After speaking to Van der Walt I received a phone call from a trusted source who agreed to speak to me on condition of anonymity. This person said the man who brokered the Mugabe print job was Peter Mancer, and that Mancer had also originally briefed the job into Caxton, which refused to run the print. I left a message with van der Walt to confirm this, but did not hear from him again.
Peter Mancer is no stranger to controversy. The Premier Soccer League marketing man was in the news last year when a gravy train story broke about soccer bosses pocketing millions following a slew of sponsorship deals. At the time Cape Argus reported that Mancer's company, Diversity Management, had "a clause in his contract that gives him 10 percent of any PSL sponsorship deal." A phone call to the PSL revealed that Mancer was in Australia where he was: "watching the soccer." The PSL would not provide his mobile number saying it was PSL policy not to do so.
I was unable to confirm with Naspers whether Mancer was in fact Mugabe's man, however there are links between the PSL and Naspers. Touchline Media's special projects division custom publishes PSL magazines. Late last year Touchline (a Naspers subsidiary) was implicated in the circulation audit scam that rocked Naspers and Media24. Then the PSL struck a R1 billion deal (over five years) with SuperSport, another Naspers subsidiary, which gave the pay channel exclusive TV rights to all PSL fixtures.
The figures don't add up? (Do the math):
In his interview with Alec Hogg on SAfm's Market Update with Moneyweb last night, Hein Brand - group MD, Media24 stated: "It was a R2,6m contract, it was 130 tons. Put in context, that plant processes 22 000 tons a year, so it's a fraction of their throughput. It sounds like a lot, but I promise they handle many of these and that group probably handles more than 800 discrete similar jobs every week, so it's one of 800 similar walk-in clients." If Paarl Web handled 800 similar jobs a week this would be 800 X 130 tons = 104 000 tons a week. Close on five times the print tonnage claimed by Naspers for the plant in a year.
