Duduzane’s fightback plan for Guptas
New details on how President Zuma’s son roped in PR firm to protect controversial family
Gupta family associates plotted with British PR firm Bell Pottinger to launch a smear campaign against National Treasury by painting former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as corrupt.
The information is contained in the leaked e-mails which also show how President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma was in charge of the fightback strategy for the Gupta family as they battled negative reports about their relationship with several government leaders.
Damning e-mails exposing the extent of the family’s control over the state also shed more light on its relationship with the controversial PR firm.
The correspondence shows the plot against Jonas came a day after Jonas said he turned down a bribe offer which included him becoming finance minister after the removal of Nhlanhla Nene.
The parties drafted a press release purporting to come from Hamza Farooqui, the managing director for WorldSpace South Africa, and partner to Gupta associate Salim Essa in Vardonspan, a company that wanted to buy the Habib Bank.
Farooqui’s statement, drafted by Bell Pottinger staffer Nick Lambert on March 17, read: “I can confirm that I paid inducement fee to Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, through the chief of staff to the Ministry of Finance, Pule Setai, and relative of Jonas’s, as well as provided other benefits, such as flight upgrades and luxury hotel rooms. I am willing to sign an affidavit in support of the above statement. I am making this statement in a bid to shed light on corruption within the Ministry of Finance.”
The statement was, however, never released as Bell Pottinger’s Victoria Geoghegan later said the media would not run it because of possible legal issues associated with the claim.
Farooqui read but did not respond to a WhatsApp query from Sowetan on the statement, while Gupta family lawyer Gert van der Merwe said he would try to reach the family.
Duduzane Zuma did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
Besides character assassination, the e-mails show other work done by the company as part of its publicity work for Oakbay and the Gupta family, which included looking at and revising press statements made by the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association and drawing up notes for controversial ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Maine ahead of a youth league rally last February.
Attempts to get comments from him and ANCYL’s national spokesman Mlondi Mkhize were unsuccessful.
Van der Merwe released a statement saying yesterday’s reports relied on “undisclosed documents and assumptions of impropriety resulting in a clear intention to influence political perception which is another example of fake news.”
He said the family deny any wrongdoing or paying any amounts to ministers or the president and reserves its rights.