This week Kunene confirmed to amaBhungane that he is the founder and funder of the website.<\/p>\n
He added that Weekly Xpos\u00e9<\/em> aims to deliver ethical journalism and that it was undergoing a trial phase while \u201ca team is being put together\u201d to run it.<\/p>\n Kunene attempted to pre-empt stories about his involvement following queries by amaBhungane and the Mail & Guardian <\/em>this week, by publishing an article<\/a> on the site on Thursday, portraying it as a straight-forward business initiative.<\/p>\n However, he earlier betrayed sensitivity about being linked to Weekly Xpos\u00e9<\/em>: according to the M&G, Kunene initially denied being behind the site.<\/p>\n On Wednesday night he called amaBhungane\u2019s reporter and threatened to \u201cfuck you up\u201d.<\/p>\n A closer look at the site suggests that Kunene, who was jailed for six years in 2002 for his role in a Ponzi scheme, is the latest high-profile individual to throw his lot in with what appears to be a media offensive aimed at backing President Jacob Zuma and his Gupta allies and delegitimising their political opponents, especially at national treasury.<\/p>\n Other prominent figures he now joins include former government spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi \u2013 one of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan\u2019s fiercest public critics \u2013 and Pinky Khoabane, author of Uncensored Opinion<\/em> and a regular columnist in Gupta-owned media outlet The New Age<\/em>.<\/p>\n Although it has a more legitimate veneer and publishes regular wire articles, Weekly Xpos\u00e9\u2019<\/em>s back story closely resembles sites such as Voetsek Blog<\/em>, Khoabane\u2019s Uncensored Opinion <\/em>and Black Opinion<\/em>, associated with the Black First Land First movement of Andile Mngxitama, a Gupta acolyte.<\/p>\n All churn out articles on \u201cwhite monopoly capital\u201d and appear to form part of a social media community that also includes the Guptas\u2019 New Age<\/em> and ANN7 TV news channel.<\/p>\n Their pro-Zuma, pro-Gupta message, in turn, is amplified by fake twitter accounts.<\/p>\n All these sites brand critics of Zuma and the Guptas as agents of \u201cwhite monopoly capital\u201d.<\/p>\n The internet domain name registration details of three sites – Weekly Xpos\u00e9<\/em> , Voetsek Blog <\/em>and Uncensored Opinion<\/em> – can be linked indirectly to Gupta interests via a certain Himanshu Tanwar.<\/p>\n Tanwar is a former marketing manager of the Gupta\u2019s IT company, Sahara Computers. The same telephone number \u2013 0613033889 \u2013 was used in registering both Weekly Xpos\u00e9<\/em> and Voetsek Blog<\/em>.<\/p>\n This appears to be an old number for Tanwar, as the WhatsApp profile associated with the number carries a photograph of an individual who bears a striking resemblance to his photographs on LinkedIn and Facebook.<\/p>\n There is some indication that Tanwar might also have been involved in setting up the Uncensored Opinion<\/em> site, which was registered with an email address that hints at his first name, [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n Tanwar declined to confirm or deny that he was involved in setting up all three sites. Khoabane could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n When pressed about Tanwar\u2019s role in Weekly Xpos\u00e9<\/em>, Kunene said that he was hired because of his technical expertise as an independent software technician.<\/p>\n He said Tanwar simply helped to set up the site and had no role beyond that.<\/p>\n In July 2016, amaBhungane reported<\/a> that Tanwar was connected to a controversial R800-million Transnet contract involving Gupta-linked company Futureteq.<\/p>\n The Guptas denied they or their companies had any share in Futureteq, although at the time the company was operating from Sahara\u2019s premises and was 50%-owned by the ex-head of new business development for a sister company, Sahara Systems .<\/p>\n According to Tanwar\u2019s LinkedIn page, he was Futureteq\u2019s digital transformation consultant while working at Sahara.<\/p>\n Tanwar officially left Sahara in May last year.<\/p>\n When contacted by amaBhungane, Tanwar claimed that he was no longer employed by the Guptas and was helping set up websites such as Weekly Xpos\u00e9 <\/em>as a freelancer, before hanging up. He did not respond to further queries.<\/p>\n Attempts to get comment from the Gupta family were unsuccessful before publication.<\/p>\n Kunene has also come to the fore in the controversy surrounding the suspension and ultimate sacking of The Citizen<\/em> editor Steven Motale.<\/p>\n The Citizen <\/em>charged that Motale was fired as a result of a \u201cbreakdown of trust\u201d that was \u201csolely due to Motale\u2019s actions and failure to follow procedures\u201d.<\/p>\n But the context for Motale\u2019s dismissal was his decision to publish a number of articles that appeared to lean heavily on an anti-treasury, pro-Gupta narrative.<\/p>\n One of them, published under the headline \u201cJonas is a Liar\u201d, referred to deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, who had publicly stated that the Guptas offered him the position of finance minister.<\/p>\n The article, for which Motale was made to apologise, was based on potentially defamatory remarks by a single leaked source.<\/p>\n AmaBhungane has now established that Motale and Kunene registered two companies together in mid-2016 \u2013 Kusema Consulting and Kusema Media Group \u2013 four months before Motale was suspended.<\/p>\n Motale admitted to amaBhungane that the relationship was not declared to The Citizen<\/em>, which appears to be a requirement of Motale\u2019s employment contract, disclosed during his recent Labour Court challenge to his suspension and dismissal.<\/p>\n The Labour Court overturned Motale\u2019s dismissal, finding that The Citizen <\/em>had not followed the correct procedures, but, he remains suspended pending a disciplinary hearing.<\/p>\n Motale has defended the seemingly pro-Gupta articles published in The Citizen<\/em> as being in the public interest, and has denied that anyone tried to unduly influence him in his editorial decision-making. The Citizen\u2019s<\/em> publisher, Eureka Zandberg, said that the newspaper\u2019s employees were not permitted to engage in other business activities.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to do so they would require written approval. He didn\u2019t ask for it and I didn\u2019t give it,\u201d Zandberg said.<\/p>\n On the question of his business relationship with Kunene, Motale said the companies were not operational and that he had \u201cnot made a cent\u201d from them.<\/p>\n In an interview this week, Kunene acknowledged a long-standing friendship with Motale, while initially denying that they had business ties.<\/p>\n Kunene also told amaBhungane that he paid Motale\u2019s legal fees in the Labour Court matter, though the latter denied the claim.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The businessman is the latest person to join a cause apparently to support the narrative that the Gupta family are victims of ‘White Monopoly Capital’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30681,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions\/30681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe email address linked to Weekly Xpos\u00e9<\/em> is [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/250x106.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nThe amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism produced this story. Like it? Be an amaB supporter<\/a> and help us do more. Know more? Send us <\/em>a tip-off.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n