Gigaba ‘didn’t open Gupta gates’

MINISTER CLAIMS FAMILY GOT NATURALISATION CERTIFICATES LEGALLY

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba flatly denies having acted unlawfully when he granted the Gupta family naturalisation certificates in 2015 when he was home affairs minister.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) announced this week it would approach the courts to have “Gigaba’s favours” corrected.

The party said it had “received reliable information” that Gigaba unduly granted the notorious Gupta family South African citizenship after it was initially denied because they had not physically resided here for five years.

“The application for naturalisation was therefore unsuccessful and the Guptas were advised to make another attempt on December 23, 2015,” the EFF said, adding that Gigaba then granted the family “early naturalisation”.

But Gigaba said “the granting of naturalisation certificates of this nature is not unusual”.

“Similar courtesies have been extended to prominent businessmen, including executives of multinationals, and sports people,” his office said. “There is no impropriety on the part of the minister in relation to how the application in question has been handled.”

His office continued to point to the lawfulness of the approval “in terms of South African Citizenship Act, 1995”.

“The Act vests the authority on the minister of home affairs to grant a certificate of naturalisation as a South African citizen to any alien who satisfies requirements for naturalisation. The application was handled in line with the procedure that requires that the department of home affairs submits recommendations to the minister for consideration.

“The sensational nature of the media reports on this issue has been unfair. It is not true that Minister Gigaba ‘opened the gates’ for the Gupta family; the Gupta family has (sic) been permanent residents in South Africa since 2008.” –