State capture inquiry calls first witnesses tomorrow
SOUTH Africa is bracing itself for the first official hearings into allegations of state capture by the Gupta family, allegedly at the behest of former president Jacob Zuma.
Two ANC bigwigs – Mcebisi Jonas, ex-deputy finance minister, and Vytjie Mentor, former chairperson of the portfolio committee on public enterprises – are among the first witnesses expected to testify before judicial commission chairperson Justice Raymond Zondo at the inquiry, which starts in Joburg tomorrow.
Both had made shocking revelations, placing the Zuma family, especially the former president and his son Duduzane, at its centre.
Jonas became the first to publicly blow the whistle on state capture in 2016. He recounted how he was invited to a meeting at a hotel in Rosebank. In attendance, he said, was Duduzane and fellow ANC member Fana Hlongwane.
Jonas said they were later whisked off to the Guptas’ residence in Saxonwold, where he was offered the finance minister’s job, allegedly by Ajay Gupta.
Jonas alleged that he was offered a bribe of R600million to work with them, with the offer made before the removal of Nhlanhla Nene in 2015.
As the country reeled from Jonas’s revelations, Mentor opened another can of worms and directly linked Zuma to state capture. She told the nation she was offered the post of public enterprises minister at Saxonwold while Zuma was in another room in the house.
Mentor initially revealed this on Facebook when she wrote that the Gupta family had “previously asked me to become minister of public enterprises when Barbara Hogan got the chop, provided I would drop SAA flights to India and give it to them”.
“I refused and so was never made a minister. The president was in another room when they offered me this in Saxonwold.”
Problems mounted for Zuma when former senior public servant Themba Maseko also linked him to state capture.
Maseko, who was then Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) head, revealed how Zuma allegedly coerced him in 2010 to use his unit’s R600m budget on advertising in the Guptaowned New Age newspaper, which is now defunct.
It emerged that in 2013 the GCIS spent R10m on advertising space with the New Age.
These revelations helped former public protector Thuli Madonsela to compile the State of Capture report which implicated Zuma.
Mentor then joined a court bid by the EFF, DA and Madonsela to ask the high court in Pretoria to dismiss Zuma’s application for the sole power to appoint a judge to investigate state capture.
Zuma also asked the court to dismiss the contents of the report, but he lost. In January, he appointed a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture, following this failure.
Madonsela’s report had recommended the appointment of a commission after she revealed that a lack of funds made it impossible for her office to produce a conclusive report. She also recommended that a judicial commission be appointed by Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
Zuma challenged Madonsela’s recommendations on the appointment of a judge. In his papers in the high court in October last year, he argued that Justice Mogoeng did not have the power under the Constitution, saying such a relief was “unconstitutional and invalid”. Zuma argued there was no basis on which to suggest a judge he selected would not be independent and impartial. The high court dismissed his submissions.
Other witnesses to be called at the inquiry include Ndleleni Willie Mathebula of the Treasury and acting GCIS head, Phumla Williams.