Mbalula ‘wept’ when promoted by Zuma

Former ministers corroborate evidence of how he revealed Guptas had prior knowledge of Cabinet changes

FORMER ministers Trevor Manuel and Siphiwe Nyanda have corroborated evidence of how ANC national executive committee member Fikile Mbalula first revealed that the Gupta family had prior knowledge of Cabinet changes under former president Jacob Zuma.

Manuel and Nyanda, who were ministers responsible for the Presidency and communications respectively, were yesterday testifying before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture on allegations that the Guptas had prior knowledge of changes to the Cabinet before ministers were hired or fired.

Manuel detailed how Mbalula cried during an ANC NEC meeting in 2011, complaining that the Guptas had in 2010 summoned him to the family’s Saxonwold compound and congratulated him for being promoted by Zuma from being deputy police minister to being sports minister.

This was before Zuma made his massive October 2010 Cabinet reshuffle or told Mbalula about his intention to appoint him to his Cabinet.

“When it came to the opportunity for Mbalula in that meeting, he became very emotional… he said he was at first very excited about making it into the Cabinet but in retrospect it should never have been the Guptas or anybody else who told him that,” Manuel said.

Despite the explosive allegation by Mbalula, Zuma avoided the topic during the meeting, he said.

“At that time it seemed there was a climate where certain individuals were invited to Saxonwold, not only Mbalula, but he was the first to make that declaration.

“This was the first confirmation, which was in the form of an emotional statement about how he had been appointed,” he said.

Nyanda, who was fired with other six ministers by Zuma in the same Cabinet, said the revelations by Mbalula confirmed the influence of the Guptas over Zuma and the government, which was then being speculated about.

“In the midst of the undercurrents that were afoot at that time about the influence of the family in the affairs of government, it was for me the confirmation that this was the case,” Nyanda said.

He said Zuma’s failure to respond to Mbalula was also proof that he did consult with the Guptas about intended Cabinet changes.

“Here is something serious that is being alleged by a member of the national executive and it is directed specifically at the president. One would have expected him to respond, but he did not, even in his closing remarks,” Nyanda said.

Manuel – a former finance minister from 1996 until 2009 – has accused Zuma of repurposing the role of the state and entrenching patronage after he took over as the head of state.

He said Zuma did this by bloating his Cabinet and by firing recalcitrant ministers, and replaced them with people who were more pliant.