Cogta boss denies setting up meeting

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs chief operations officer Lakela Kaunda has denied claims that she set up a controversial meeting between former president Jacob Zuma and former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor in 2010.

Through her lawyers, Kaunda‚ who previously served as Zuma’s aide‚ denied she had called Mentor in October 2010 to arrange a meeting between her and Zuma.

Kaunda’s lawyer, Henry Cowley, was cross-examining Mentor at the state capture inquiry on Tuesday.

Mentor had previously testified that she got a call from Kaunda to inform her that her request for a meeting with the president – which Mentor had been trying to arrange for some time to discuss pebble bed modular nuclear reactors – had been successful.

The next day‚ Mentor claims‚ she was flown to Johannesburg and escorted by Rajesh Gupta to the family’s Sahara Computers office‚ where she met his oldest brother‚ Ajay.

Mentor said she was then taken to the family’s luxury residence in Saxonwold‚ where she was offered the position of public enterprises minister.

Mentor has since changed her testimony‚ claiming that the call from Kaunda may have taken place in September 2010.

Cowley alluded to records from Kaunda’s official cellphone for October 2010‚ which show no call made to Mentor.