Malema wants Nombembe out

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for the chairperson of the State Capture Commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, to remove former Auditor-General Terrence Nombembe from the commission because he is conflicted as the CEO of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

Malema claimed yesterday that SAICA received a donation of R1.2 million from the Gupta-linked Trillian Capital in 2017 and that, because of this, Nombembe should not participate in the state capture inquiry, which implicates the Gupta family.

Nombembe is the lead investigator in the state capture inquiry and the legal team is led by Paul Pretorius SC with Vincent Maleka, Leah Gcabashe and Thandi Norman as other senior counsel.

Dr. Khotso de Wee was appointed as commission secretary.

Malema said: “By the time SAICA received the donation, it was a common cause and public knowledge that Trillian Capital was used as a corruption vehicle by the Gupta criminal syndicate and had received more than R500 million from Eskom.”

He alleged Trillian directors Eric Wood and Salim Essa were involved in the removal of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister, who was replaced by Des van Rooyen.

He said the EFF wrote to Nombembe but he responded with an email inviting the party to a phone conversation over the issue.

“The fact that SAICA received a donation of stolen money from Trillian Capital disqualifies Mr Nombembe from the role he has been designated as lead investigator,” Malema said.

SAICA said it had returned the money to Trillian.

The EFF said it would write to Judge Zondo to ask him to recuse Nombembe because the EFF intended to call him as a witness.

Malema objected to the appointment of a white advocate, Pretorius, over a black senior counsel, Maleka, whom he said would have been capable of leading the team.