High-profile Gupta visits verified
After being confronted with e-mails, chief operating officer in the Presidency Kaunda confirms she visited the family’s compound
As brazen as the Gupta family has been in its attempts to capture the state, as revealed in leaked e-mails, equally intriguing has been the number of high-profile people summoned to their Saxonwold estate. On Saturday, chief operating officer in the Presidency Lakela Kaunda confirmed she had visited the Gupta compound.
As brazen as the Gupta family has been in its attempts to capture the state as revealed in the leaked e-mails saga, equally intriguing has been the number of high-profile people summoned to their Saxonwold estate, some of whom visited the family often.
Among the people alleged to have visited the Gupta home are Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen and former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe, who has intimated he might have been visiting a “Saxonwold shebeen”.
On Saturday, chief operating officer in the Presidency Lakela Kaunda confirmed to the Sunday Times she had visited the Gupta compound after she was confronted with scheduled meetings on the e-mail calendar of Sahara chief operating officer Ashu Chawla.
As startling as it is, this confirmation of four meetings from November 2012 to January 2013 is also the single most important confirmation of the veracity of the leaked e-mails so far.
Kaunda said she walked away from business dealings with the Gupta family.
Among those who visited the Gupta family’s Saxonwold compound are:
Ace Magashule — 4pm, October 2 2012. Free State Premier Magashule through his spokesman declined to comment on the e-mails on Sunday until the Hawks had finalised their investigations.
Obed Bapela – 8.30am, October 23 2012; 11am, November 2 2012; 9am, December 10 2012; and 2pm, August 1 2013. At the time the meetings took place, Bapela was the deputy minister in the Presidency. He is deputy co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister and serves on the ANC’s international relations subcommittee. Bapela did not deny the meetings took place and told Business Day he had been friends with the Gupta family since 2001. “We are still friends to this day,” he said.
Mosebenzi Zwane — 5pm, January 5 2013; 4pm, February 1 2013; 4pm, March 15 2013; 5pm, April 6 2013; and 1pm, August 27 2013. At the time of the meetings, Zwane was Free State rural development and agriculture MEC. He attended at least two of these meetings with his head of department, Peter Thabethe. During this period, there were several exposés about the Estina Dairy project worth nearly R570m and which an investigation by the Treasury found was riddled with irregularities. It is believed the Gupta family benefited substantially from the deal. Zwane, through his spokesman, responded to questions by referring to a postcabinet statement urging all implicated to co-operate with law enforcement investigating the e-mails. Supra Mahumapelo – 4pm, January 16 2013. Mahumapelo became North West premier in 2014. Tony Gupta also met his younger brother Tau, who now sits on the Denel board, at least once. Spokesman for the executive of the province, Brian Setswambung, did not deny that Mahumapelo met the Gupta family, but said that the premier had on countless occasions emphasised the importance of the government having to work with “all companies investing in the province”.
Jacinto Rocha — 10.30am, October 3 2012; and 4pm February 18 2013. As former deputy director-general of mining and mineral resources, Rocha signed off on iron-ore prospecting rights potentially worth R7bn to Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) in 2011, a company in which Gupta ally Jagdish Parekh, Duduzane Zuma and Gugu Mtshali, former president Kgalema Motlanthe’s partner, all shared an interest. Sishen Iron Ore challenged the awarding of the rights to ICT in what has been described as the most bitter mining rights dispute in South African history. Rocha told Business Day on Saturday he had resigned from the mining ministry, effective February 1 2011 and at the time of visiting the Gupta family, was a consultant in the mining industry.
Rajesh Naithani — 5pm, October 12 2012; 4pm, December 8 2012; and 3.30pm, February 9 2013. Naithani was appointed a member of the South African Airways (SAA) board in September 2012 by then public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba and allegedly fed the Gupta family information from board meetings. Leaked e-mails last week revealed Naithani had lobbied the Guptas for a position at Transnet after he heard he may be removed from SAA. Naithani did not respond to questions that were sent to his e-mail address.
Romeo Kumalo — 5pm, February 21, 2013; and 5pm, September 26 2012. Former Eskom board member Kumalo was at the time the executive commercial director of Vodacom. Kumalo said the Guptas lobbied him to get advertising in the Gupta-owned The New Age newspaper. “I told them Vodacom had governance policies on placing advertising and they would have to follow the correct channels and procedures,” Kumalo said. “They never did, and Vodacom never placed any advertising at the time in The New Age.” He said he had been asked to collect an invitation to Vega Gupta’s wedding, which he did not attend. “My gravest mistake, it would seem, was to serve on the board of Eskom, which lasted a period of 14 months — and meeting Salim Essa,” he said. Kumalo said he had not benefited from any deals with companies in the Gupta network. He resigned from the Eskom board in April 2016 after his appointment in February 2015. He was reported to have links to close Gupta ally Essa through their co-directorship of Ujiri Mining, a company Kumalo has been at pains to clarify never traded at all. “I abhor corruption and every form of state capture,” Kumalo said.