How Hawks tried to protect Zuma and company

The directorate for priority crime investigation – or the Hawks – attempted to erase any reference to former president Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane, the Gupta family and some ministers in a statement alleging corruption by former ANC member of parliament Vytjie Mentor, the commission was told yesterday.

Mentor said Hawks senior official advocate Alouis Mtolo visited her home two years ago with a “corrupted typed statement” with facts altered from the original hand-written one she had made to police in the Western Cape.

“In my statement, I said they all had a corrupt relationship with the Gupta family. I asked Mtolo where my original hand-written statement was and he said this was my typed version.

“When I pointed out to a few errors which made it difficult for me to sign it, Mtolo said the typist was Afrikaans speaking and I refused to accept the explanation.

“He then said the investigation would not proceed if I did not cross out reference to president Zuma, son Duduzane and some ministers. I told him if it would take removing the names to get the investigation done, I would do it,” claimed Mentor.