Minister Davies met Guptas on several occasions
Trade and industry chief confirms he met the family a number of times
Trade & industry minister Rob Davies has confirmed that he met members of the controversial Gupta family on a number of occasions, and says he is willing to appear before the commission of inquiry into state capture. “As previously indicated, including in an engagement with the former public protector as she was preparing her report ‘The State of Capture’, I met with members of the Gupta family on a number of occasions between 2009 and 2013,” Davies said in a written reply to a question in parliament.
Trade and industry minister Rob Davies has confirmed that he met members of the Gupta family on a number of occasions, and says he is willing to appear before the commission of inquiry into state capture.
“As previously indicated, including in an engagement with the former public protector as she was preparing her report ‘The State of Capture’, I met with ... the Gupta family on a number of occasions between 2009 and 2013,” he said in a written reply to a question from the DA in Parliament, published on Monday.
“As minister of trade and industry, my work involves frequent interactions with a wide range of businesspeople as well as actual or potential investors.”
Earlier in October, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had accepted the resignation of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister and appointed former SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni to take his place.
Nene asked Ramaphosa to relieve him of his duties following public pressure over his testimony at the state capture inquiry in which he admitted to meeting the Gupta family on numerous occasions, and at their private Saxonwold home.
Nene previously told broadcaster eNCA that he had not had any engagements with the Guptas and had only “bumped into” them at official functions.
A cache of leaked e-mail correspondence between the Guptas and their associates, including cabinet ministers and former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane‚ showed how they influenced the government.
In his reply, Davies said he had received a request in 2009 to meet Duduzane Zuma to discuss some of his business ideas.
“I knew Duduzane since he was a child in Maputo and agreed to a meeting at my residence in Cape Town. Mr Zuma arrived with Mr Ajay Gupta, and this was the first time I met a member of that family. Mr Gupta told me his company had spent a considerable sum on preparation of a feasibility study for a mining project that was submitted to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
‘‘[Gupta] complained that the application was taking a long time to process and that they were in danger of losing the option to buy from the existing owners. If this happened, he said, hundreds of workers would lose their jobs. As with innumerable similar representations made to me both before and since, I responded saying that as minister I could not and would not get involved in deciding on the merits of any particular application.”
Davies said he told Gupta that professionals were employed to assess applications according to defined criteria.
He said: “In this regard I had confidence in the robustness of the procedures of the IDC, overseen by a board then chaired by the wife of a prominent opposition politician. I did, however, say I would refer his complaint of the time delay to the IDC as I have with numerous other similar complaints with regard to procedures by the department or agencies reporting to it.”
Davies said the IDC had advised him they would assemble a team to take the application to the point of decision.
“I was never advised as to whether the project had merit or otherwise, nor did I give or receive any directive as to the outcome of the decision. Shortly ... the IDC ceased reporting to the minister of trade and industry and I heard nothing further of the progress of this application.”
Davies said the period after 2009 was one in which SA made much effort to enhance relations with India, bilaterally and within the context of Brics.
“I participated in numerous business fora, both in SA and India, organised by different formations in both countries. Members of the Gupta family attended a number of these. On a few occasions [maybe five or six times], I accepted invitations to social events organised by members of the Gupta family [as at the time did many other politicians, including the premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille].
“These included a cultural event on the sidelines of an international cricket match and, on occasion, I also went to a few events at their residence. Most of these were social occasions where several other people were also present.
“On very few occasions, I accepted personal dinner invitations with my wife… Discussion on these occasions was broad and general and mostly social in nature, with an emphasis on the value of deepening economic relations with India. They also informed me, in general terms, of their plans to establish a new newspaper,” said Davies.
He said on one occasion, while on a visit to Mumbai, he was invited to a warehouse where computers assembled at the family’s facilities in SA were received for export to India.
“At the end of this visit, I was given a laptop computer. I subsequently donated this for use by the small enterprise development agency and showed the documentation on this to the former public protector.”
He said he attended the family’s wedding at Sun City ‘‘under the impression that there would be a number of Indian business people and government officials” he would interact with.