Home Affairs D-G to be grilled over Gupta naturalisation

THE naturalisation of the Gupta family is expected to take centre stage when the Department of Home Affairs appears before a parliamentary committee today.

This comes almost a week after EFF leader Julius Malema made public letters that showed an apparent interference by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba in the granting of citizenship to the business family. The letters showed that Gigaba, as then home affairs minister, overruled a senior official’s refusal to grant the Gupta family citizenship when they did not have five years’ physical residence in SA.

Gigaba has since defended his actions, saying he had used the powers granted to him in his previous post.

But the EFF has threatened to approach the courts to have the ruling reversed. Yesterday, committee chairperson Lemias Mashile said the committee wanted the department to provide details about the saga.

“The matter is in the public domain. There are a lot of opinion makers following what the EFF has said,” Mashile stressed. “We want the department to give its position on the matter so we don’t continue to misinterpret things.”

Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni is expected to give full details when department officials meet the committee.

The DA’s Haniff Hoosen, who last week requested Mashile to summon Gigaba to account before the committee, said in his letter to Mashile that he was concerned that the Guptas had received preferential citizenship from Gigaba when they did not qualify.

“Knowing that minister Gigaba maintains a suspiciously close relationship with the Guptas, their preferential citizenship must be explained.

“Gigaba must, therefore, be summoned to appear before the portfolio committee on home affairs in Parliament under oath, in order to testify as to the record of decision for the Guptas’ preferential citizenship and his relationship with the Guptas,” he said.

Hoosen further said he was yet to receive a response from Mashile. But he said he was hopeful that Gigaba would appear before the committee to answer questions.

But Mashile said he could not have summoned Gigaba according to the DA’s wishes. “We don’t work like that. I’m the chairman and I’m leading the committee. I can’t summon a person when there is no decision to hold an inquiry.”