Now Nene implicates Shivambu

‘He wanted to halt VBS Bank’s curatorship’

FORMER finance minister Nhlanhla Nene yesterday revealed EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu’s desperate attempts to force him to intervene and halt the doomed VBS Mutual Bank’s curatorship.

Concluding his testimony at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Nene spoke about the EFF’s campaign against him shortly before testifying before the commission in October, describing it as an attempt to tarnish his image and bring his evidence into question.

He told the commission, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that Shivambu, whose younger brother Brian has been implicated in the looting of VBS, tried to lobby him not to place the doomed financial institution under curatorship, soon after he was re-appointed finance minister in February last year.

“I found it strange that someone would try to influence my decision,” Nene said of Shivambu’s message.

He said the EFF’s public criticism of him was to show that no one in the ANC was clean and therefore the governing party should be removed from power.

Nene also recalled that he visited the Guptas’ Midrand offices and Saxonwold compound on at least eight occasions but only so as not to antagonise friends of his boss (Jacob Zuma).

Nene said he visited the Guptas six times when he was deputy finance minister between 2009 and 2014 and twice during his first stint as finance minister between 2014 and 2015.

“It was in the interests of being accessible,” he said.

Nene, who resigned in October as finance minister following revelations that he had been dishonest about his visits to the Guptas after testifying at the commission, said he got details of his visits from his protector’s logbook.

He said the commission was unlikely to get volunteers to give evidence considering the price he paid after giving evidence last year.

According to Nene, he stepped down after it emerged that he did not disclose previous engagements with the Guptas.

In an interview after he was axed by Zuma in December 2015, Nene said he did not respond honestly.

“I took the easy way of not responding honestly. If I held another office, I would have asked for special leave to clear my name,” he explained.

He said he resigned due to the nature of the impropriety and his respect for the office of the finance minister.

Nene also revealed that his son Siyabonga tried to look for business opportunities with Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane.

The Brakfontein project, Nene explained, would have seen Siyabonga and Duduzane buy a mine but they pulled out after doing due diligence. Nene said the mine was overpriced and there were other things that did not make business sense.

Nene also dismissed suggestions that during his tenure as the Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC) chairperson, his son and his business partner Amir Imirza received funding from the stateowned asset management firm to buy an oil refinery in Mozambique.

In his evidence and written statement last year, Nene implicated Zuma, and his former colleagues in the Cabinet, David Mahlobo, Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

Zuma has not responded to the commission while Mahlobo and Nkoana-Mashabane claim they have not been implicated by Nene and will not give evidence or apply to cross examine him.

Joemat-Pettersson has told the commission that she is willing to testify but has requested certain documents.