In an attempt to break away from Guptas ties, the new owner of ANN7 and The New Age, Mzwanele Manyi, has taken a decision to rename both media titles.

The rebranding, according to Manyi, will take effect on April 30 2018.

The New Age newspaper will be rebranded to take a new title Afro Voice while ANN7 will assume the name Afro Worldview.

“This is a strategic decision to break away from the past of the previous channel ANN7 and give viewers a fresh outlook on the news,” said Manyi through the company’s spokesperson.

Manyi also said that the newspaper’s editorial policy will also be amended to be in line with the press code.

ANN7’s contract with Multichoice comes to an end in August after the company took a decision to not renew its broadcasting license following allegations of possible corruption.

The Gupta leaks showed Multichoice had paid ANN7 R141-million a year and controversially paid R25-million to the Guptas.

Multichoice subsequently called on black-owned news stations to bid for ANN7s spot which will be vacant from September.

“Afro Worldview is participating in the bidding process of the proposed new black-owned news channel on MultiChoice’s DStv platform,” said Manyi.

MultiChoice representatives when questioned however would not name any of the various bidders.

“To date, we have received more than 60 bids for the news channel. We can’t disclose the names of the bidders. The bidding process for the new black-owned news channel is still underway, and MultiChoice will announce the winning bidder at the end of July 2018.” The company said in a statement.