Free State shelled out R79m to Gupta media
The Free State government channelled about R79m into Gupta-owned media companies during the time it was headed by Ace Magashule, who was linked at the weekend with an alleged plot to oust President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The province had paid R79.3m — just R20m less than the total for national departments — to The New Age newspaper and Infinity Media, which housed the former ANN7 television station — the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture heard on Monday.
In total, the Gupta media businesses received about R260m from the government, according to testimony by Treasury official Jan Gilliland.
The Sunday Times reported this weekend that Magashule met former president Jacob Zuma and others at a Durban hotel to plot a reversal of the election of Ramaphosa at the ANC’s Nasrec conference.
Magashule was chairman of the governing party in the Free State from 1992 and premier for close to a decade. He only left the province after he was elected the party’s secretary-general in December 2017, at the same conference that elevated Ramaphosa as leader, beating Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
The second-biggest provincial spender with the Gupta family, which is alleged to have used its connections with Zuma and his family to direct spending by the government and stateowned enterprises towards its business interests, was Zuma’s home province, KwaZulu-Natal, with just more than R25m.
Magashule, has emerged as one of the key figures in the state capture project .
It was also under his watch that the Free State became embroiled in the Estina dairy farm debacle, in which R220m meant for emerging farmers is alleged to have been channelled to the Gupta family and its associates.
Magashule has been a staunch supporter of Zuma.
Gilliland tracked payments made to The New Age and Infinity Media through the basic accounting system used by national and provincial government departments.
He said the system had found 11 bank accounts linked to companies and 1,783 transactions.
Gilliland revealed that Infinity Media received R12m, while The New Age got R248m.
The newspaper received its first payment in 2008, the year before Zuma became the country’s president.
The two biggest contributors were the offices of the premiers combined and the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).
Evidence leader Vincent Maleka said transactions pulled by the Treasury showed that the amounts spent on the media companies escalated once Themba Maseko, the former head of the GCIS, left.
Maseko has testified that Ajay Gupta tried to convince him to funnel the GCIS’s R600m budget to the family’s media companies, and he was in turn fired by Zuma when he refused.
Maseko was replaced by Mzwanele Manyi, a known Gupta ally who bought the family’s media interests in 2017.
Another key figure linked to the state capture web, Duduzane Zuma, has contacted the commission indicating that he is willing to testify — after initially refusing.
He will testify in relation to evidence given by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas that he was offered a bribe and the job of finance minister.
Former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma has had a change of heart and will testify at the state capture inquiry.
Advocate Paul Pretorius said Zuma’s lawyers had written to the commission’s legal team informing them that he would testify in relation to evidence given by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas.
Jonas has alleged that Duduzane Zuma was at a meeting where the Guptas offered him the job of finance minister and a R600m bribe.
At first Duduzane Zuma informed the commission he would not testify because he was facing charges in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court on the same matter.
He made his first appearance in court earlier in 2018 and is expected to be back again in court in 2019.
Commission head deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo is still to decide on the applications made to cross-examine witnesses by those implicated in their testimony.
Duduzane Zuma had applied to have Jonas cross-examined.
The Gupta brothers are refusing to come to SA to testify at the commission. They have instead said they are willing to testify via a video link from Dubai, where they currently are.
Calls are mounting for Duduzane’s father to appear before the commission and answer a slew of claims that the Gupta family controlled him and used their connections with him to milk the state of billions.
Asked if the ANC believes Jacob Zuma should appear before the commission, head of the presidency Zizi Kodwa on Monday said there must be “no fear or favour”.
“We want this commission to do its work without fear or favour, regardless of your height or size, regardless of your position in society or in the organisation. Whether you were once a president of the republic or a premier of a province, you must be bold enough because these allegations are quite serious,” Kodwa said.
Jacob Zuma, through his lawyers last week, said he would not apply to cross-examine witnesses as none of them implicated him.
His lawyer, Daniel Lugisani Mantsha, wrote to the inquiry after Zuma was notified that he may be implicated by the evidence of former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, current and former government communications heads Themba Maseko and Phumla Williams and former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan.
“We have consulted our client … We are satisfied that nothing in the aforementioned witnesses’ statements implicates or may implicate our client in the infringement of the aforementioned statutes, policies of government and relevant ethical codes,” said Mantsha.
Kodwa’s statement on Monday came on the day the commission heard how the Guptas’ media companies pocketed more than R260m from the government since 2004. The funds were channelled from the Government Communications and Information System and various levels of government to the Gupta-owned The New Age Media and Infinity Media.
The Zondo commission will continue with its hearings on Wednesday and is expected next to hear testimony from Hogan.
CALLS ARE ALSO MOUNTING FOR DUDUZANE’S FATHER TO APPEAR BEFORE THE COMMISSION