Dr Iqbal Survé, chairman of Independent Media. Picture: Supplied
Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Independent Media decried bullying by those in control of the financial institutions such as the banks in the country for using their influence on the banks to isolate and shut bank accounts of those they do not like.
Surve, also known as the “Struggle Doctor” was speaking on Thursday during an interview on ‘Podcast and Chill with MacG’ which aired on YouTube.
Highlighting some of the challenges faced by the country, Surve stated that those who owned the resources of this country including the banks were not investing in the country. He felt that the capitalist elite did not have passion for the country.
Demonstrating some of the abuses subjected to those who were not deemed part of the ‘Stellenbosch Mafia’s’ tactics in isolating those who had different views, he argued that the closure of the bank accounts was to shut bank accounts of the competing businesses.
“The Stellenbosch mafia controls five/six banks control over R6 trillion which is 90% of this country’s economy…Look at them, and unpack them…Absa and FNB Rupert, The point is if they do not like you if you say something they don’t like, if you compete against them, if you are outspoken they can shut your account. You need a bank account for advertisers, to buy things, to pay for your daily things, for food and other things.
“So they are quite clever, they use the banks against you, so what are the banks saying They say Dr. Surve we know you have done nothing wrong, you have never been involved in corruption and money laundering…they say this in writing by the way.
“But then they say we’re shutting your account because of ‘reputation’ because the media which is funded by shareholders of the banks have written 3000 articles about me…something that has nothing to do with me.”
Surve stressed that there will be no development if investors do not believe in the black majority of this country, adding that the capitalist elites wanted full control of this country’s key resources including the ruling party, the intelligence agencies, and the media intelligence.
“I am the biggest target of the capitalist establishment today, because one, I was a non-alignment and we have huge capital resources to be able to expose them through the media.”
Asked about when he became a target of the capitalist establishment, he stated that it all started when Sekunjalo decided to buy the Independent Media Group Newspapers.
“So until 2013, we did everything right, we won the most awards than any other company…suddenly we said let’s buy the media to tell the true story of Africans, and so we started this journey to see if we could buy the Cape Times, then I announced that we are going to buy the Independent Media..my god, I didn’t understand you can touch anything, don’t touch the media…the media is theirs.”
Surve indicated that as part of his transformative agenda, he appointed the first young black Editor Siyavuya Mzansi who was in his early twenties at the time and went on to become the world’s young Editor of the Year.
“We have created the success of many people, now this is not what some people wanted to see, they don’t want to see black success because that goes against the narrative which they have been running for decades that black people can’t have success,” said Surve.
In support of Surve’s views on how the capitalist establishment targeted black people who owned media houses, MacG indicated that his Podcast received similar treatment from the mainstream media which always wrote negative stories about them.
In response, Surve said that the reason for this ill-treatment of black-owned media houses was to ensure that there were no contested narratives.
“If you have a contested narrative, you give people an opportunity to make up their minds and to decide what they think is right and wrong. If you can block out the narrative and paint a certain narrative in a way then you can control every other aspect of the society, you can control the economy, the intelligence, and politics, so the media narrative is absolutely critical,” he stated.
Surve warned that if things continued the way they were at the moment, there would be civil unrest in South Africa.
Sunday Independent