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The new owner of The Herald and Daily Dispatch is throwing a swanky party, complete with food, drinks and live entertainment on Friday while the staff behind the two iconic newspapers are still waiting to be paid.
The invitation, sent to what it describes as “esteemed guests”, invites them to a 1pm celebration in KuGompo City, formerly East London, to mark the official opening of Voice Lounge’s new premises and the online station’s first anniversary.
But for the journalists, photographers and support staff who produce the newspapers, there is little to celebrate.
They had still not received their July salaries, normally paid on the 25th of the month, leaving many struggling to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table.
The man behind them is Sakie Sakhumzi Magele, an Eastern Cape tenderpreneur with more than 20 companies to his name, 14 of them deregistered, and a three-year travel contract with Buffalo City municipality.
His company Khumzi Investments quoted R10,613,278.98 and won the whole of that tender, despite the municipality advertising for a panel of four agencies and receiving 11 bids. Buffalo City pays that company.
The SA National Editors’ Forum said on Wednesday that staff at the newspapers had not received their July salaries from Ubuntu Media Holdings, the company through which Magele took the titles.
“While this dispute persists, it must be noted that the affected workers continue to suffer as they struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table,” Sanef said.
Employees set out their own position in an emotional open letter posted anonymously to a Facebook page called Be Brave, saying many of them were unpaid and that nobody had told them when that would change.
“There is growing concern that The Herald may even be unable to publish this week,” the letter said.
Magele was not on the board of Ubuntu Media Holdings when the titles changed hands, and records held by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission show he was appointed a director on May 5 2026, four days after the handover had already taken effect.
The deal included five titles, Daily Dispatch, The Herald, The Rep, Talk of the Town and Go! & Express, together with their digital platforms, which between them made up Arena Holdings’ entire Eastern Cape stable.
The Herald, first printed on May 7 1845 and 180 years old last year, is the oldest running newspaper in the country, while Daily Dispatch has served KuGompo City and the wider Eastern Cape for more than a century.
Both are award-winning titles that cover the province and its politics, its courts and its councils, among them Buffalo City municipality.
IOL has obtained the tender specification, the bid register and the award record for Buffalo City tender CE 595.
On October 13 2025, the municipality awarded Khumzi Investments a three-year contract to coordinate and manage all municipal air travel, accommodation, car rental and the hiring of venues for conferences, meetings and workshops, with the recommendation approved a fortnight later on October 27 2025.
The award document gave Khumzi a score of 100 and recorded the reason for the award in four words, “only responsive bidder”.
The specification, advertised on April 15 2025 and closed on May 27 2025, required a panel of four agencies working on a rotational basis, with a register kept by the municipality’s travel desk coordinator to spread bookings and revenue evenly among them, and it makes the point twice, the second time in bold.
“It must be noted that service providers will be appointed to rotate in providing these services to Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality,” the specification said.
With Khumzi appointed alone, there is no panel to rotate.
The specification also set strict eligibility requirements, saying only companies that were official members of the International Air Transport Association or the Association of Southern African Travel Agents would be accepted, and that bidders had to produce annual financial statements for the past three years, field at least three consultants with three years’ experience each on call 24 hours a day, and be based inside the municipality’s area of jurisdiction.
The company that won the contract has no working website, and khumzi.co.za loads a bare server directory, three folder names on a blank page, and nothing else.
An archived version of the site from 2023, retrieved by IOL through the Wayback Machine, described Khumzi as a company set up in 2012 to work with government departments and municipalities on water and sanitation services, with no mention of travel.
Among the 10 companies that bid and did not get the work were Harvey World, Willards Travel and XL Aleo Travel.
The municipality gave IOL a different account of the award this week, with spin doctor Luzuko Buku saying 11 bids were received and that two of them failed.
“Two bidders were found non responsive, however the reasons for them being non responsive cannot be disclosed without their consent,” Buku said.
“Panel of four service providers. Two bidders qualified for appointment and one out of the two providers bidders declined.”
The award document said Khumzi was the only responsive bidder. Buku said two qualified.
He did not say what became of the other seven.
Buku refused to say what the contract is worth, and said it was a rates-based arrangement billed as and when required.
“The information requested cannot be disclosed as it is confidential between the service provider and BCMM,” he said.
He refused to give the dates of the bid committee sittings, the amount paid to Khumzi to date, the committee resolutions, and the address Khumzi wrote on its bid form.
“The information is confidential and cannot be disclosed without permission from Khumzi Travel,” Buku said of the address.
He said the municipality had done its due diligence through a three-tier bid committee system.
“The due diligence was conducted in compliance with the SCM policy and in terms of the returnable documents in terms of the tender,” Buku said.
“The Bid Adjudication Committee then assesses the work of the BEC with particular focus on the principles of fairness and value for money to determine if the recommended bidder or bidders are indeed the ones who were supposed to be recommended.
“This stage was conducted and the contract passed it after its due diligence test.”
Six months after that award, on April 30 2026, Arena staff opened an internal message from group chief executive Pule Molebeledi.
“Arena Holdings has reached an agreement to partner with an Eastern Cape-based private investment group to form a new media entity, which will manage, operate and publish these titles,” Molebeledi said.
“This development reflects a deliberate effort on our part to streamline our portfolio and sharpen our strategic focus as we move towards the future.
“By aligning with a partner that brings both capital and conviction to the future of independent journalism, we are enabling these publications to adapt, grow, and continue serving their audiences with relevance and integrity.
“Both partners have committed that the editorial independence and identity of each title will remain intact, maintaining the standards and credibility that define their role in our media ecosystem.”
He named no company and no individual.
The arrangement took effect the next day, May 1 2026, and Ubuntu Media’s chief executive is Bongani Siqoko, a former editor of both the Daily Dispatch and Sunday Times, who left Sunday Times editorship in February 2020 and went on to hold senior positions at Arena, including general manager for strategy and communications and publisher of TimesLIVE.
The transaction was reported publicly on June 1 2026, with the buyer described only as an unnamed Eastern Cape private equity group.
Three months on, staff at the titles have not been paid.
“We have received no payment this month,” a staffer said.
“We are in the dark.”
Sanef said it had approached the new owners.
“Sanef has reached out to Ubuntu, and an undertaking has been made that the issue is being attended to and would hopefully be resolved soon,” it said.
The editors’ body said journalism suffered when media companies did not pay their staff, that boardroom disputes should not be visited on workers, and that the affected staff had continued to put the newspapers together while unpaid.
A company linked to the new owner of The Herald and Daily Dispatch secured a three-year Buffalo City travel contract before five Eastern Cape newspaper titles changed hands. Three months after the takeover, employees were still waiting for their July salaries while a launch party was being planned.
The municipality calls for a panel of four agencies to manage official air travel, accommodation, vehicle hire and venue bookings.
Eleven companies submit bids, including established travel agencies.
Sakie Sakhumzi Magele’s company receives the entire three-year contract after quoting R10,613,278.98. The award record describes Khumzi as the “only responsive bidder”.
The recommendation is approved, although the tender specification required four providers working on a rotational basis.
Employees are told that an unnamed Eastern Cape investment group will take over five newspaper titles and their digital platforms.
The Herald, Daily Dispatch, The Rep, Talk of the Town and Go! & Express move under Ubuntu Media Holdings.
Company records show that Magele was appointed four days after the ownership arrangement took effect.
The buyer is publicly described only as an unnamed Eastern Cape private equity group.
The organisation is registered at 12 Gloucester Road, the same address listed for Ubuntu Media Holdings.
Employees do not receive their salaries on the normal payment date.
The South African National Editors’ Forum confirms that employees remain unpaid. An anonymous staff letter says workers fear victimisation and warns that The Herald may struggle to publish.
Voice Lounge is due to celebrate its first anniversary and the opening of its new premises at 12 Gloucester Road. Employees at the newspapers are still waiting for their July salaries.
The celebration
The staff crisis
Operates the five acquired newspaper titles.
Became an Ubuntu Media director on 5 May 2026.
Holds Buffalo City’s travel contract, owns the newspapers’ new vehicles, and owns 12 Gloucester Road.
Shared premises where Daily Dispatch and Voice Lounge were expected to operate.
The open letter was signed by nobody.
“We write anonymously because we fear victimisation,” it said.
It was written on behalf of the journalists, photographers, sub-editors, designers, printers, sales teams and support staff of both newspapers, and said they were facing one of the darkest moments in the history of the titles, with the two mastheads carrying a combined heritage of more than 350 years and having survived wars, economic downturns and political upheaval.
“Journalists who spend their days reporting on the hardships of others now face financial hardship themselves,” the letter said.
Staff had families to support, bonds and rent to pay and school fees falling due, it said.
“This letter is not written to attack individuals. It is written because people are scared.
“It is written because silence has replaced communication. It is written because loyal employees deserve better than uncertainty.”
The Herald’s fleet has also changed, with the newspaper previously running vehicles leased from Avis before Magele cancelled that lease and bought cars instead.
The Herald now runs three Toyota Vitz and a bakkie, registered to Khumzi Investments, the same company that holds the Buffalo City travel contract.
It was not the first time Khumzi Investments had come under scrutiny.
Sunday Times reported in May 2022 that the company received close to R40m from the Eastern Cape education department in a single month, made up of R17.7m for training courses and R22.1m for accommodation, as part of a programme in which the province outsourced matric tutoring to private providers.
Magele refused to answer that newspaper’s questions, referring them to his attorney, who said the information sought was covered by confidentiality agreements her client was not willing to breach.
Sunday Times is an Arena title.
Company records list more than 20 entities linked to Magele, built up over 22 years, among them Sakizandi Trading, a close corporation he joined on June 9 2004 and of which he holds 100%, followed by Almenta 189 in August 2010 and Monyakaza Mining Resources in July 2011.
Marcypix and Khumzi Investments were registered a day apart, on March 1 and March 2 2012, then came Kids Etc in March 2013, Filled to Overflowing Transport N Projects in August 2013, and Naldovision in May 2015.
Four more arrived in the space of eight months during 2016, Sekheleng Investments in April, Engweni Projects in May, Wrecking Ball Trading in August and Zilagraph in December, and he took 51% of Inkulu Tyres in July 2017 and registered Isidingo Personnel that November, with Piermont Business Solutions and Existo Investments following in 2018.
He was appointed to Mdali Khumzi Resorts on October 18 2019 and resigned on November 25 2019, five weeks later, while Jon Jen Investments came in January 2020 and Ubuntu Farm College in November 2023.
Of those entities, five are recorded as in business, 14 carried the status of annual return final deregistration, which the commission applies to companies that fail to lodge annual returns, Ubuntu Farm College is in the deregistration process, and Isidingo Personnel, a labour broking company, is in provisional liquidation.
Two of the five still in business were registered this year, one of them Ubuntu Media Holdings and the other the Khumzi Empowerment Foundation, registered on June 23 2026, three weeks after the newspaper deal became public.
Both are registered at 12 Gloucester Road in Vincent, an address company records list as a residential one, and the building houses offices which until this week were occupied by the Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council, a provincial public entity.
Khumzi Investments owns it.
Council spokesperson Tobile Gowa said the building had been sold by its former owner and that the lease had transferred with it.
“Our organisation duly fulfilled its contractual obligations by paying the June rental to the new property owner which is Khumzi Investments (Pty) Ltd,” Gowa told IOL.
The council is vacating on Friday, the day of the party.
“Our relocation to our new office premises will be completed at the end of July, at which point our tenancy at the current premises will come to an end,” Gowa said.
He refused to say what the council had been paying.
“These matters form part of a private contractual arrangement with the current property owner, and disclosure without the relevant party’s consent could constitute a breach of confidentiality obligations,” Gowa said.
Once the council is out, IOL understands Daily Dispatch was moving in, along with The Voice Lounge.
The newspaper that has covered KuGompo City for more than a century will be reporting from a building owned by the company holding the metro’s travel contract.
IOL made repeated attempts to reach Magele, and a mobile number listed for Khumzi Investments on the 2023 archived version of its website, retrieved through the Wayback Machine, is no longer in service on WhatsApp.
A landline listed on the same page rang, and a receptionist who answered said she would put the call through to Magele.
The call was not transferred.
Questions were also emailed to Magele’s attorney, but the message bounced back undelivered, while Ubuntu Media Holdings acting chief operations officer Ryan Megaw said: “I cannot comment.”
Questions sent to Molebeledi had not been answered by the time of publication.
IOL
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