Former Gupta-owned ANN7 news editor Rajesh Sundaram painted a bad picture of his then employer, the Guptas.
In his testimony at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry of the State Capture, Sundaram plaits a tapestry of deliberate disregard for labour law, let alone basic human decency.
eNCA reporter Michael Appel who worked for 5 years at the channel, also shared his experiences of working for the Guptas.
He details how the working hours were insane at the media house.
A February 2015 work roster shows journalists being required to work 10-hour shifts, 12 days in a row.
It soon became apparent that the Basic Conditions of Employment Act was there to be ignored.
“The sense that I got is that they didn’t really respect the people who worked for them,” Sundaram said.
“They thought they were all servants who could be treated in any way they want. They could be kept in subhuman conditions.”
Ethel Williams Abrahamse, a former ANN7 employee, started working at the channel three days before its launch.
She stayed for only six months and remains traumatised to this day. “At ANN7 you worked because somebody tells you to work,” said Abrahamse.
“If Atul Gupta tells you I want you to go shoot that and you say you’ve just done 12 hours.
He says, well you do want your job or you don’t want your job. You decide.”
Nowadays the ANN7 building is nothing more than an empty shell now.
It is a place where careers began but also a place of suffering and degradation.
(Edited by Johanna Molokomme)
