Gigaba to face charges
THE Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has laid charges of corruption against Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, Tony Gupta and two other Gupta associates.
The charges are related to information contained in the leaked Gupta e-mails whose authenticity Outa said it had verified.
In an affidavit submitted to the police and signed by Outa’s head of legal affairs, Stefanie Fick, the non-profit organisation said there was evidence of misconduct on the part of Gigaba, Gupta and the two others, Ashu Chawla, chief executive of the Gupta-owned Sahara computers, and an immigration official who worked at the South African High Commission in New Delhi, India.
The official is said to have unlawfully facilitated the expedition of visas for some Gupta associates and relatives at the request of Chawla.
For this, it is further alleged, the official was rewarded with a top post in 2015 and that was done “outside the normal recruitment process”.
Another official had claimed in e-mails that the “deployment” of the official charged by Outa was done following an instruction from Gigaba.
“It appears that Tony Gupta may have had the ability to influence the decisions taken by Gigaba and the reason thereof should be properly investigated,” Fick stated in the affidavit.
These requests for the official to expedite visas were made in a series of e-mails dating to 2011. At one stage the official allegedly expedited the visas for Chawla’s wife and son.
Another e-mail reveals that the official may have knowingly misrepresented the reasons for a visa granted to Tanvi Gupta who had come to the country marry Varun Gupta.
“Chawla states outright (in the email) that he intends to use the Sahara letterhead to facilitate the false business visa and attached a draft to this effect,” Fick says.
Gigaba’s spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete could not be reached for comment. Gert van der Merwe, the Gupta family lawyer, referred enquiries to the family’s spokesperson Gary Naidoo.
He too did not answer his phone and did not respond to an SMS. An e-mail was sent to Chawla and no response was received.