Gigaba skips Gupta hearing
Minister didn’t flout citizenship rules, says Apleni
Former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba did not flout the law when granting the Gupta family South African citizenship and merely took the advice of the department’s top officials.
This was according to Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni, who briefed parliament’s Home Affairs oversight committee on the decision to grant the Guptas early naturalisation.
One of the concerns raised by MPs was how the department and Gigaba had failed to inform parliament about the decision as stipulated in the regulations.
MPs were also not impressed by the absence of Gigaba and current Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize despite their being invited by the committee last week to come address allegations of impropriety in the Gupta naturalisation saga.
In written apologies to the committee, Gigaba and Mkhize cited prior commitments for their no-show.
Apleni admitted that the department “omitted” to submit the list of naturalised Guptas to parliament, which should have been done within 14 days of such a decision.
Section 5(9)(b) of the act requires the minister to inform parliament “within 14 days after the commencement of the sittings of parliament in each year”.
“It was an omission, that is what we are saying. We did not table that. Was it only [the] Gupta family at Mr Gigaba’s time when the department did not do that? The requirement is for tabling,” said Apleni.
“It doesn ’t say there is a condition that parliament must look at that [list] and then say we are happy and therefore you can proceed. It’s not a condition to grant the citizenship... We should have tabled, and by not tabling it can’t be equal to [saying] they are null and void.”
He said the department had made the same mistake with other citizens.
Apleni added that the decision was not taken unilaterally by the minister.
“There is no minister who sits in a corner there and just does this. Officials prepared documents for a minister and we recommend. A minister can either approve or disapprove based on what we have done. The discretion lies with the minister,” said Apleni.
The committee also heard how under Gigaba, who spent three years at Home Affairs, there were 18 naturalisations.
There were only two per year during the tenures of his predecessors, Nkosazana DlaminiZuma and Naledi Pandor.
MPs now want Mkhize and Gigaba summoned to appear before the committee.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen expressed his unhappiness at their absence, saying they were the ones who should be answering on this matter and not Apleni. But ANC MPs defended the two ministers.
‘ ‘ It was an omission, that is what we are saying.