My meetings with the Guptas – Nene
Did minister help them cut deals?
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene held several meetings with the Guptas during his first term, and prior to that when he was deputy minister, where they demanded his intervention on the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) deal with Iqbal Surve’s Sekunjalo Investment Holdings.
Nene will for the first time own up to interactions with the Guptas when he testifies at the state capture commission on Wednesday.
It is understood that the Guptas summoned Nene to a number of meetings when he was deputy minister of finance and chairman of the PIC after Surve rebuffed their attempts to buy a stake in the Independent News and Media group.
In February 2013 the Sekunjalo group won the bid to buy Independent Media from its Irish owners for R2bn, some of which Surve raised from the PIC.
Initial discussions between Surve and the Guptas led them to believe that they would have a stake in the deal. However, Surve said he could not include them in the consortium as the PIC objected to changes in the shareholding.
The Guptas then repeatedly met with Nene, trying to convince him to pressure the PIC to include them on the deal. Nene appears not to have acted on their requests because the matter was still hanging after the 2014 elections when he became the minister of finance.
It is believed the Guptas had at least two meetings with Nene while he was finance minister on the issue. At this time, Mcebisi Jonas was deputy minister of finance and became chairman of the PIC. Jonas shut down the issue. Nene has kept silent on this matter. According to sources at the National Treasury, he did not confide in his colleagues about the meetings.
During the presidency budget vote earlier this year, EFF leader Julius Malema claimed that Nene was “corrupt as hell”, questioning whether he had met with the dubious business people and had intervened on their behalf.
Malema said he had written to Nene asking who had proposed his name for the position of deputy minister and later minister of finance.
“So it’s not the type of guy we think he is. He’s extremely dangerous and when this information comes, you will all be shocked that he is corrupt as hell,” Malema said.
Nene will have to come clean about his interactions with the Guptas following allegations about his impropriety at the PIC.
A text message has been circulating purporting to be details of a story to be published by investigative unit amaBhungane about Nene.
The message claims that his son Siya Nene’s oil company acquired funding from the PIC while he was the chairman.
It also claims that Nene is linked to the Guptas and “instrumental in funding many of their business deals”.
AmaBhungane’s editors Stefaans Brummer and Sam Sole said on Twitter that they had not leaked the information but have not denied that they were investigating the matter.
One of the people behind the leak of the message is Yusha Duarte, son of ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte.
Insiders at the PIC claim there was no conflict of interest but Nene will have to disclose to Judge Raymond Zondo his involvement in the matter and allegations about improper relations with the Guptas.