MPs call Gigaba to testify over state capture at Eskom

● Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is to be hauled before parliament’s Eskom inquiry for a grilling over how the Guptas were allowed to milk billions of rands from the state-owned power company.

Public enterprises portfolio committee chairwoman Zukiswa Rantho said on Friday that the committee had served Gigaba with notice that he must appear before it on March 6.

Separately, Gigaba told the media on Friday that no one had linked him to the Gupta state capture project, and that the parliamentary committee had not called him to testify.

“The report of the public protector [Thuli Madonsela] made no mention of me, the inquiry in parliament of Eskom did not call me to come and testify,” he said.

But Rantho said some of the “mishaps” at Eskom appeared to have started during his tenure as minister of public enterprises from 2009 to 2014.

“We want him to come and explain his role. He is coming to explain and clarify . . . all the allegations made against him [including] his instructions apparently made to the Denel and Eskom workers to do things that were not acceptable,” she said.

“Because of what transpired in some of the committee meetings that we’ve had, members of the committee felt that he must come.

“So we took a decision that we must bring him in and clarify the issues.”

Gigaba’s spokesman, Mayihlome Tshwete, said yesterday that he was not aware that the finance minister would be in the firing line at the Eskom inquiry.

“I don’t know anything about that, but he has said so himself that if he’s called he will go,” said Tshwete.

The High Court in Pretoria ruled this week that Gigaba had lied under oath in a court case while he was minister of home affairs.

The litigation concerned plans by the Oppenheimer company Fireblade Aviation to run a privately owned international terminal at OR Tambo airport.

Fireblade Aviation accused Gigaba of reneging on a pledge to delegate immigration and customs staff to the new terminal.

During the case, the Oppenheimers said the Guptas were behind efforts to sabotage their plans.

The Eskom inquiry is also expected to grill former SAA chairwoman Dudu Myeni, who was said by former Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi to have summoned him to a March 2015 meeting attended by the then president Jacob Zuma at which he was told to suspend certain senior executives.

Rantho said Myeni had been told to appear before the committee on Wednesday. “We’ve called her, we did not give her a choice.”

Gigaba’s name has featured prominently in the state capture allegations along with those of other cabinet colleagues.

Opposition MPs used this to question his credibility this week as he tried to sell an unpopular budget to the country.

He has denied any involvement in state capture, saying he looks forward to clearing his name at the judicial commission of inquiry headed by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

Gigaba’s appearance at the parliamentary inquiry will be the first time that he will have to respond under oath to the state capture allegations against him.

Sources in the committee said issues they wanted to raise with Gigaba included allegations that his special adviser during his tenure at public enterprises, Siyabonga Mahlangu, had been following his orders when he facilitated meetings between Eskom executives and members of the Gupta family.

We’ve called her, we did not give her a choice Zukiswa Rantho Public enterprises portfolio committee chairwoman