Africa-Press – Eswatini. Paul Loffler, the Managing Director(MD) of African Echo(Pty) Ltd trading as Times of Eswatini says, even though he hasn’t taken a final decision whether to sell the newspaper or not, he will consider any convincing offer.
The Director of the multimillion giant newspaper was speaking to this journalist on Friday afternoon after being contacted to clarify if it’s true that, the publication might soon be under the ownership of new investors.
“I cannot say I’m selling it Zweli and I cannot also say I’m not selling it. You see everything is not for sale but it is for sale. If I can ask you “are you selling your phone obviously, you will say NO because you are using it now. But if I can come with a convincing offer and say; “here is an offer, please give me your phone”, you can sell it to me”, said the Managing Director.
Loffler then jokingly asked this journalist if he wants to buy the Times of eSwatini.
“Do you want to take it, you can take it and I can see you doing well there, it seems you have money now”, he said and laughed.
One of the senior journalists of the newspaper told this publication that, they were summoned into a meeting on Friday and told that, there might be reports alleging that the giant and highly reputable newspaper might be sold.
The journalist said, the Directors were very diplomatic about the issue even though some of them were able to read between the lines.
“I am also aware of that the newspaper might be sold but, the owner and senior editors were very diplomatic about it during our meeting. We asked for clarification because we are concerned about the security of our jobs”, said the Times journalist who cannot be named for ethical reasons.
It has been disclosed that, among the giant eSwatini investors who developed interest in taking over the Times, are the Directors of the Al-Mansoor Group who owns the Buy and Save SPAR.
Reached for comments by this publication, Mlungisi Dlamini, the Spokesperson of the Al-Mansoor Group said, after consulting with his superiors, he was told that nothing formal was ever communicated with the Times Director in this regard but, the engagement was informal.
“It was just an informal engagement with the owner of the Times as you know that, Al-Mansoor Group Directors are renting a property from Loffler. So at some point, the Al-Mansoor Group owners asked him to consider them first if he plans to sell the newspaper, nothing formal was discussed but it was a corridor engagement”, said the Al-Mansoor Group Public Relations Officer(PRO).
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