Paper Tiger. Alide Dasnois

we can do something together.’

      He attached to the letter the latest edition of Leadership magazine which contained a long article about him. This, he said, was because his decision ‘to remain outside the public eye’ for the previous few years had ‘created a lot of mystique’, and the article might ‘demystify who I am since it helps to set aside any speculation’.

      Crotty replied on 17 July that Survé’s proposed stake of 10% for staff ‘does not accurately reflect the full value of the considerable intellectual capital that our staff trust brings to any bid to buy out the South African assets’, but that the trustees were happy to keep talking. The fact was that Crotty, Dasnois and Gumani were reluctant to throw the weight of the trust behind Survé – whose bid might not succeed – for anything less than a promise of 25%.

      Survé wrote to Crotty on 24 July 2012 to say he had appointed advisers and was ‘confident of our position’ relative to rivals and wanted to finalise the partners in the consortium. He asked for the names of all the participants in the trust. He also said that ‘another group of former and current Independent employees’ had formally presented their credentials ‘and are now included in our consortium’, and he tried to pressure the trustees into a commitment. Crotty replied on 25 July that the trust was unable to accommodate his deadline. Much later, it was to become clear how much this had angered him.

      Meanwhile, in September INM plc reported very poor interim results, with expectations that the second half of the year might be as bad. INMSA’s contribution to group profits had dropped by 34%, partly because of the closure of the Cape Town printing operation and the drop in commercial print revenue.

      The company noted that several parties had shown interest in acquiring the South African operation and said that this was being considered. CEO Crowley indicated that the sale of INMSA could halve the group’s debt level of €423 million, implying that the South African company was valued at around €210 million, or approximately R2 billion at current exchange rates.

      There was now speculation that a second undisclosed bidder – Sekunjalo being the first – might be the Gupta family, rather than Ramaphosa. The Guptas were to become notorious in South Africa for their role in ‘state capture’ – the use of corrupt politicians to access state resources.

      As Investec was advising INM plc about the sale, Gordon Young approached Investec on behalf of the trust, asking to be kept informed and to receive the memorandum of confidential information sent to other bidders. In response, Investec asked for proof of support for the trust from staff. But the trustees were concerned about possible victimisation of staff members who supported the trust. Instead, they asked Mwasa, which had 393 members or 28% of all staff, and the South African Typographical Union (Satu), with 161 members or 11% of all staff, to send letters of support for the initiative to Investec.

      Crotty told Investec on 11 November: ‘We are not prepared to give INM a copy of the list of employees who have signed in support of the trust … During the past ten years there have been frequent retrenchment exercises at INMSA – even during periods of strong profit growth – and this has created a general sense of insecurity amongst employees. Because of this we felt it was necessary to provide staff with some comfort that their names would not be disclosed to management of INMSA. Our desire to provide this comfort was heightened by the animosity towards the Staff Trust initiative that, rightly or wrongly, employees sensed from top management – certainly Alide Dasnois and I both felt our continued employment at INMSA was under threat.’

      On 13 November 2012, the trustees were able to update staff on developments. ‘There is apparently a short-list of three interested bidders; it is unclear who they are but the speculation is that Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo is one of the three. [The mining magnate] Patrice Motsepe might also be involved in a bid. In addition there is speculation that [businessman] Muzi Kuzwayo is part of a group that may be making a bid.

      ‘The Guptas apparently remain on the sidelines at this stage; their offer of approximately R1.2 billion has been deemed too low to be considered. If the other parties do not make a firm offer above this level or if the Guptas can be persuaded to increase their offer, they will be brought back in as a potential bidder.’

      Meanwhile, staff were getting very worried as the process of profit extraction accelerated alarmingly. Staff vacancies were frozen, putting even more pressure on those who were left. Merit increases and re-grades were also put on hold, with serious effects on staff morale. Freelance budgets were cut even further, though newspapers had been relying on freelance contributions because of previous staff cuts. Editors were under pressure to reduce the number of pages per edition to save printing costs; urgent decisions – on the future of internet and mobile coverage, for instance – were put aside, while competitors moved forward. At the same time, cover prices of the newspapers were raised again and again, in an attempt to make short-term revenue gains. Deteriorating news coverage, combined with smaller editions and higher prices, led to tumbling circulations.

      By December 2012, as speculation continued to circulate, there seemed to be only two bidders left in the race: a consortium that included Patrice Motsepe – and Sekunjalo.