‘Let me check my diary – but I didn’t meet Guptas’

Deputy Public Enterprises Minister Ben Martins yesterday rubbished claims made during parliament’s inquiry into state capture allegations at power utility Eskom that he had met with Ajay Gupta and Duduzane Zuma on July 29 this year – but could not immediately account for his whereabouts on the day.

“She is a liar,” Martins said of Eskom’s suspended head of legal, Suzanne Daniels, during a hastily convened media briefing.

Daniels on Wednesday told MPs that Salim Essa, a Gupta associate, had invited her to a meeting at a flat in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, on July 29. When she arrived she found Martins, Ajay Gupta and Duduzane Zuma.

According to her testimony, a discussion took place on the court case in which the R30 million pension payout to former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe is being challenged and Gupta, who was barefoot and in grey track pants, asked “how far they are”.

She replied that no date had been set and because more parties were joining the court proceedings there needed to be discussions with the deputy judge president’s (DJP) office.

“Gupta said he will then have to talk to someone in the DJP’s office and make sure the hearing takes place after December 2017,” Daniels testified.

Martins indicated he was looking at taking legal action. Asked where he was on July 29, he said he could not recall. “I would have to check my diary where I was on whatever date was articulated in July. I have not asked any staff where I was that day.”

Martins did not deny meeting the Guptas, saying he had attended an Indian food fair at the Guptas’ mansion in Saxonwold, where he met the brothers. This was in 2013, shortly after he was appointed deputy minister. He had also met Tony Gupta during a media business breakfast.

During his tenure as transport minister, Martins said he had to intervene when former Passenger Rail Agency of SA board chair and now Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi, and the state-owned company’s disgraced former chief executive, Lucky Montana, complained to him that the Guptas were trying to push them out.

Martins said he invited Buthelezi, Montana and Tony Gupta to his house to resolve the matter.

Martins hinted Daniels had a grudge against him for admonishing her.

He said he met with her three or four times alongside his boss, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, to discuss the Molefe payout. “I said to her [Daniels] as the legal advisor you have a responsibility to give full disclosure of everything you know.”

Shortly after this, the Eskom board suspended her. – ANA