Gigaba tried to seal lucrative deal for Indian airline, Carolus testifies
In his stint as public enterprises minister, Malusi Gigaba tried to facilitate a lucrative deal for an Indian airline, while his director-general lobbied for SA Airways to advertise in The New Age, the state capture inquiry heard on Thursday.
Gigaba prioritised the facilitation of a meeting between SAA and major Indian international airline Jet Airways within weeks of taking office in 2010, even though SAA had persistently avoided interaction with the Indian-based airline in the past.
Jet Airways ferried the Gupta family to the Waterkloof Airforce Base for the notorious Sun City wedding in 2013.
Senior officials from Gigaba’s department also lobbied for SAA to advertise in the Guptas’ newspaper, The New Age.
Former SAA board chair Cheryl Carolus said this at the inquiry.
Carolus, who corroborated earlier testimony by former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan, said Jet Airways CEO Naresh Goyal had tried to meet her to discuss the closure of SAA’s lucrative flight routes between Johannesburg and Mumbai.
“It was a strange request. “We decided we were not going to do it.
“They went on an aggressive campaign against SAA.”
Hogan previously testified about a state visit to India in June 2010 where Goyal was “desperate” to meet her.
She was fired a month after her return and replaced by Gigaba in November that year.
Carolus said that within weeks of his appointment Gigaba had requested a meeting to discuss the Mumbai route.
Former SAA CEO Size Mzimela allegedly attended the meeting.
“They [Mzimela and other SAA representatives] then came and gave me a reportback, and the one thing that struck me was that the minister told them that he is expecting more people.
“They then proceeded to wait for these unidentified people and they waited for three hours.
“It was extraordinary that a minister would wait for three hours,” Carolus said.
“When they arrived, they were two gentlemen, one of whom was [Goyal].
“[Gigaba] took a back seat and the entire discussion was led by [Goyal]. Gigaba did nothing and said nothing. We thought it was very peculiar.”
She said Gigaba had called another meeting in April 2011 where Goyal was again present.
This time, at the end of the meeting, Gigaba allegedly instructed that SAA and Jet Airways must “find one another”.
It is believed the Gupta family had an interest in Jet Airways and actively lobbied for the closure of SAA’s route on its behalf.
Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor testified previously that one of the Gupta brothers allegedly offered her Hogan’s job on the understanding that she would close the routes once she took office.
Another part of Carolus’s testimony implicated senior officials in Gigaba’s office.
She said that she, along with Mzimela, had been summoned to a meeting with then public enterprises director-general Tshediso Matona.
The meeting came after SAA’s bid adjudication committee turned down a deal to advertise with The New Age because the newspaper did not meet the airline’s criteria.
“[Matona] explained that the [paper] was a new entrant in the media scene and he thought that to encourage media diversity, [it] should receive some support,” Carolus said.
The commission of inquiry will continue on Tuesday. –