Ajay said Guptas normally appointed ministers – Mentor

FORMER ANC MP Vytjie Mentor has explained how shocked she was when one of the Gupta brothers allegedly promised her a ministerial job if she assisted the family’s business interests.

Mentor yesterday took the stand as the third witness of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, currently under way in Joburg.

The commission heard how the Gupta brothers were confident about their power over former president Jacob Zuma, which allegedly allowed them to tell him who to hire and fire.

Mentor said she was astonished when the eldest brother, Ajay, told her in 2010 at their Saxonwold house that there were plans to fire then public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan and that she could be recommended for the job.

“What particularly stands out for me was the discussion of him having the capacity to make me a minister. The fact that he knew that the president (Zuma) wanted to reshuffle... at the time there was no inkling whatsoever in the media, that I knew of, that there was going to be a reshuffle.

“I asked him how this would happen, that I become a minister. He said he could put in a word for me with the president. When I expressed shock, he said ‘we normally do’,” Mentor said.

She said Ajay said she would have to cancel the SAA route between Joburg and Mumbai, India, to allow a Gupta-linked airline to take over the route.

“He said they were in partnership with Jet Airways that would see to it that goods and cargo continue.

“He talked about SAA’s turnaround strategy, that it was not yielding results,” Mentor said.

Her testimony comes after former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas told the commission Ajay Gupta had also offered him the post of finance minister.

The Gupta brother also asked if she could assist the family with the uranium deposits in the Northern Cape which they wanted to procure for the nuclear build programme.

Mentor said she rejected the ministerial offer, resulting in the appointment of Malusi Gigaba after Hogan was fired by Zuma.

“Under Gigaba’s watch, indeed SAA was replaced by Jet Airways in the Johannesburg to Mumbai route,” she said.

Advocate Vincent Maleka said those implicated by Mentor and Jonas – including Zuma’s former adviser Lakela Kaunda – had lodged applications to cross-examine the two.

Mentor said it was Kaunda who called her in 2010 to meet Zuma and the Guptas, allegations Kaunda is denying.

The commission’s head, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, said those who wanted to cross-examine witnesses would have to be prepared to take the witness stand and also be cross-examined.

Mentor continues with her testimony this morning.