30 April 2004
	MEDIA BEE GIANTS cut down TO SIZE By Itumeleng Mahabane The media sector has lost its early empowerment momentum and is sliding backwards

From the perspective of empowerment, today's media landscape is remarkably different from five years ago. Two giants that towered over the empowerment scene, Nail and Johnnic, are all but gone, shadows of their former selves. (See table on Media.) Fortunately, Johncom's broad-based empowerment credentials appear significantly healthier. The group scores highly on management, with 50% of its executive management black. The company also commendably spends well on skills development, in a country that does poorly, with about 5% of the payroll spent on skills. The group also spends quite a lot of money on leadership training, offering a Graduate Institute of Management & Technology course to both black and white staff with leadership potential. According to the annual report: "By the end of calendar 2003, about 80 group managers will have undergone high-level training." There has also been significant progress in management transformation. Executive director Paul Jenkins, who used to run Johnnic Entertainment, says more than eight division heads left entertainment and have all been replaced by black staff members. There's less certainty about affirmative procurement. The group does not declare its affirmative spend, though Jenkins insists there is a policy. He argues there are limits to what the company can outsource. "We can only get our paper from one or two groups, we can only print with certain people. Much of everything else is internal. But we are outsourcing a lot of our professional services." None of the media groups discloses procurement For media watchers, news that Nail has barely any black shareholding (1,8%) should not come as a surprise. Perhaps more surprising to some is that Johncom's direct shareholding is virtually nil. Johncom's empowerment shareholding is preserved mainly through a 62,5% interest by parent company Johnnic, which itself is 28% controlled by the National Empowerment Consortium (NEC), a consortium of black shareholders. The question is: how much of the NEC is still controlled by black shareholders? Insiders say it is less than 10% and that much of it is made up of the Public Investment Commissioner, which has granted voting control over its stake to the NEC. At the moment there is no charter mooted for the media industry. One would, at least, promote fuller disclosure.