SowetanLive reports that some employees at ANN7 TV and The New Age newspaper staged a stayaway on Tuesday after they were not paid their salaries.  

But apparently as a last-minute attempt to save the day, the company organised transport to fetch employees from their homes to bring them to work and provided pizza and drinks for lunch.  The new owner, Mzwanele Manyi, was adamant his company was not facing a financial crisis despite the delay.  He insisted that there was a "small technical glitch" at the weekend which delayed payments of salaries at his new media houses, which were previously owned by the controversial Gupta family.  "By end of business today [Tuesday] all employees will be covered.  At least 90% of them have been paid.  The payday was on Monday and the technical glitch on Sunday meant the only opportunity we could fix this was on Monday," Manyi told Sowetan.  "Going forward we will make sure that we press the send button earlier," he stated.  Manyi claimed that employees who were not at work were on different shifts.  It was reported last month that the two establishments were going through turmoil following the Gupta exit and that employees were without basic office necessities such as tea, toilet paper and petrol for fleet cars.

• Read this report by Julia Madibogo in full at SowetanLive
• See too, Salary payment glitch hits ANN7 and New Age staff in pockets, at The Star

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page