Hollywood has nothing on South African state capture
THOSE who blamed Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s sonorous tone for turning day one of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry into a big yawn must confess they were quick to pass judgment.
After the testimony of former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas on Friday they must surely reckon that the fireworks – and there are plenty – will not come from the commission chair but from those appearing before him in Parktown.
Jonas set the tone for the bombshell evidence still to be read into the record. Before the commission adjourned for lunch, many in the audience gasped audibly, as if Jonas was reading from a John le Carré novel – only these were his own words, not crime fiction. The people he named were not reel characters played by Marlon Brando, Al Pacino or Robert de Niro. They were real, with names like Duduzane Zuma. Jonas said former president Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane – the blue-eyed boy of the alleged corruptors – picked him up in a two-door Mercedes-benz. He was driven to the Gupta mansion in Saxonwold where, in a meeting that would promptly convene, Duduzane kept back, albeit still in the same room, with Fana Hlongwane, an arms deal character, seated like a lackey as the Gupta brother Jonas would later confirm to be Ajay came into the room.
Like dialogue straight out of a Hollywood movie, Jonas was warned: This meeting never took place.
Still think the Zondo Commission was boring?
The Gupta brother who came into the room talked on and on: “He was like a radio.”
He continued to mouth off Marlon Brando lines: Jonas was there so that they could “check him out”, “see if you can work with us”.
The young Zuma and Hlongwane sat throughout the meeting “like they never existed”.
Talk about black men who knew their places!
Gupta told Jonas, among many Tinsel Town titbits, that “we are in control of everything”. And they were, at the time, powerful enough to offer people Cabinet positions.
The purpose of the meeting was to make Jonas the minister of finance after then incumbent Nhlanhla Nene was kicked out. In a line that has earned Jonas hero status, mentioned in a statement he released on Wednesday March 16 2016, he said he rejected the offer “out of hand”.
What is a movie plot without million dollar figures? Jonas repeated to the commission what is now part of the country’s state capture folklore: he was offered R600 million to take the job. An on-the-spot carrot of R600 000 was dangled. He was asked if he had a bag to stash the loot in!
Duduzane “we made him a billionaire”, sat quietly without a whimper when Jonas was told “we control everything... the old man will do anything we tell him to do”.
Any boy proud of his genes would have registered disquiet at such blatant disrespect shown to his father.
Jonas told Zondo that “I was shocked and angered”.
Not Duduzane! He is likely to have been sitting there with his prim and proper private school manners and toothpaste ad smile.
The down payment offered to Jonas was so that he could clean up National Treasury, get rid of a few stumbling blocks the Guptas wanted out of the way, including Lungisa Fuzile and Ismail Momoniat.
A man of principles, Jonas made to stand up and leave. What does the Gupta mafiosi do? He threatens to kill Jonas!
Jonas later appraised Nene of the impending doom and gloom. When Nenegate finally happened, the then finance minister said in an SMS to Jonas: “The axe has fallen.”
Hollywood has nothing on South African state capture!
Nene’s sin was his reluctance to sign off on the nuke deal. Jonas said: “The pressure on us from Zuma to approve the deal was immense.”
Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor sat in the audience. Her testimony promises to be more damning on the so-called Zupta empire than Jonas’s.
She curtly told this reporter she had nothing to say before her own appearance before the commission but that she had absolute faith in the process “otherwise I’d not be here”.
Even if he had designs on a Hollywood career, Jonas wouldn’t have made up half of his testimony.
It may well be that the first witness of the commission, National Treasury procurement chief Willie Mathebula, lacked the gravitas to get the proceedings off to a fantabulous start.
Jonas did it; Mentor will definitely open the can of worms even wider.
Boring, what’s boring? Not the Zondo Commission.