Illustrative image: IOL CEO Viasen Soobramoney. (Photo: Facebook / @Survé Philanthropies) | Newspaper. (Image: Magnific) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) IOL has announced a R200-million shareholder-backed investment to fund what it describes as a bold national expansion strategy, which will include hiring at least 200 media workers and launching a new flagship publication, The National.
The company said the money would be used across three areas: building out national digital infrastructure and AI-powered publishing technology; expanding its editorial staff; and launching The National, a new publication aimed at readers across South Africa.
IOL chief executive Viasen Soobramoney said in an IOL article that the investment was a “decisive vote of confidence” in South African journalism and that the company intended to become the country’s biggest and most impactful digital publisher within three years.
The hiring ambition is substantial. IOL says it plans to recruit at least 200 journalists, multimedia producers, designers and digital specialists over the coming weeks, which would rapidly build one of the largest digital newsroom teams in Africa.
It is a striking move in a media market where newsrooms have mostly been shrinking, not swelling. Print circulation has collapsed, advertising revenue has splintered across global technology platforms, and many local publishers have had to choose between paywalls, donor funding, membership, events, branded content and aggressive cost-cutting.
IOL’s pitch is different: scale, technology and a national footprint.
The company says it has operated as an independent digital publisher since 2014, with its own ownership structure, editorial leadership and executive team, separate from Independent Media. While IOL and Independent Media have long been closely linked in public perception, IOL says the two have, for more than a decade, been different companies with different mandates and futures.
That distinction is now being made clearer. IOL has formally served notice to Independent Media that it will terminate the historic content partnership agreement under which it was able to draw on Independent Media’s print content.
According to IOL, the agreement served its purpose during an earlier stage of the business, but the company now wants to build its own journalism operation from the ground up.
The new IOL strategy includes investment in artificial intelligence and data-driven editorial tools to deliver personalised content experiences to millions of monthly readers. The platform is also expected to support a new-format IOL print product aimed at readers who want depth and context, even as the group’s main growth plan is digital.
The launch of The National, expected later this year, is being framed as the centrepiece of the new strategy, with coverage planned across politics, business, culture and ideas.
The announcement follows a major leadership change at Sekunjalo, where founder Dr Iqbal Survé has stepped down as chair, with effect from 1 May, after more than two decades. Sekunjalo called it both “the end of an era” and the start of a new phase for the investment group.
Survé said the time was right to hand over to a new leadership team. Zoliswa Kota-Mpeko, a founding member of the group and former deputy minister of Human Settlements, has taken over as chairperson, while Lucien Jacobs, previously Sekunjalo chief operating officer and chair of Independent Media, has been appointed chief executive.
The transition comes as Sekunjalo and its related media interests continue to push back against the public conflation of several entities: Sekunjalo, Independent Media, Independent Media Consortium and IOL.
The Sactwu matter
That issue surfaced again after the Supreme Court of Appeal rectified an error in the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) matter involving the Independent Media Consortium, or IMC.
In a media statement mailed to Daily Maverick, Sekunjalo said the SCA correction confirmed the application of the in duplum rule, which caps interest so that it cannot exceed the capital amount owing. As a result, the amount claimed by Sactwu was reduced from about R458-million, plus ongoing interest from 2023, to R300-million, effective March 2026.
The case stems from a R150-million loan advanced by Sactwu in 2013 to a special purpose vehicle first known as Sekunjalo Independent Media and later renamed IMC. The vehicle was created to hold shares in Independent Media on behalf of a broad-based consortium.
Sekunjalo has stressed that IMC is not Sekunjalo and is not Independent Media. Jacobs said the R150-million was paid to the Public Investment Corporation as part of the acquisition transaction, not to Sekunjalo.
Sekunjalo has also said it has instituted its own action against Sactwu in the Western Cape high court for about R250-million plus accumulated interest, bringing the total claim to about R620-million. That matter, it says, relates to a proposed workers’ newspaper initiative.
The unanswered questions
Daily Maverick posed a series of questions to Independent Media and IOL, but has yet to receive a response. We reached out via email at midday on Wednesday, 3 June and again just before the close of business on Thursday, 4 June.
Other than a message from Lutfia Vayej, Independent Media’s group executive: marketing and communications on 4 June, indicating that the email would be forwarded to Viasen Soobramoney and Lucien Jacobs (they were both already included in the emails sent on 3 June), we have had no response.
Questions we posed included:
❓Given that most major South African banks (including Standard Bank and Nedbank) have blacklisted and closed the accounts of Sekunjalo-linked entities due to compliance and reputational risks, which financial institution is currently hosting IOL’s operational accounts and facilitating the clearing of this R200-million investment?
❓Are these funds subject to any debt-for-equity swap agreements, or are they unencumbered equity injections?
❓If Sagarmatha Technologies remains the ultimate owner of IOL, how has this R200-million transaction been structured on Sagarmatha’s balance sheet, considering the company’s history of massive unlisted asset impairments (eg, Loot and VoltAfrica)?
❓In October 2024, the Press Council of South Africa expelled the Independent Media group – including IOL – for failing to abide by rulings regarding malicious and inaccurate reporting. As you establish a new, separate digital newsroom, does IOL intend to (re)join the Press Council of South Africa and voluntarily submit to its code of ethics and independent adjudication?
❓If IOL does not intend to rejoin the PCSA, will it continue to use the internal Sekunjalo “Group Ombud” system?
❓How do you justify charging members of the public a R5,000 refundable deposit to hear a press complaint, alongside forcing them to sign away their constitutional right to legal recourse? How does this match your stated ambition of being “factual, accountable, and public-interest focused”?
❓In December 2025, Independent Media appealed the Competition Commission’s MDPMI recommendation that Google/tech-giant funding be tied to recognised ethical oversight. Is IOL’s R200-million digital expansion a strategic move to bypass this ethical requirement while continuing to lobby for a share of public-interest media funding without subscribing to the Press Code?
❓You have stated that IOL is “officially ending its operational partnership with Independent Media” and building its own digital newsroom “from scratch”. Practically, how will this split be executed? Will IOL continue to syndicate and monetise content produced by Independent Media’s print titles (such as The Star, Cape Times, and The Mercury)?
❓If IOL continues to run print syndication, how can you claim a clean operational break from a print division that is currently facing active liquidation proceedings by Sactwu and the PIC?
❓ Can you guarantee that no employees of the “new” IOL newsroom are being cross-subsidised by other Sekunjalo entities, and will you commit to publishing audited, independent financial statements for IOL SA (Pty) Ltd going forward?
❓Your planned flagship publication, The National, is slated to focus on politics, business, and culture. In light of findings by the Press Council and the Mpati Commission that Sekunjalo-owned media has repeatedly been weaponised to publish fake news and launch targeted smear campaigns against corporate competitors, state institutions, and independent journalists, what structural safeguards will you put in place to ensure The National operates with absolute editorial independence from the corporate interests of the Sekunjalo Group? DM