How Thuli nailed Guptas
Inside explosive state capture report they didn’t want you to see
THULI Madonsela’s report on state capture has exposed the depth of the rot implicating President Jacob Zuma and his close friends, the Gupta family – the stretch of their ties extending to state-owned entities.
But it was the cellphone records that placed all the implicated parties in the state capture allegations.
In her explosive report that has far-reaching implications on Zuma’s political career, Madonsela revealed that Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe had called Gupta patriarch Ajay Gupta 44 times, and the latter called the Eskom boss 14 times.
The cellphone records also place Molefe at the Guptas’ Saxonwold, Joburg, home 19 times.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen was at the family’s house for a week prior to his shortlived appointment as finance minister in December.
The contact between Zuma’s son Duduzane, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas and businessman Fana Hlongwana and other Gupta associates was the vital link to the Guptas’ network to gain leverage in state contracts.
The web did not only end in the alleged influence in the appointment of cabinet ministers. It also sought to benefit the family in state contracts worth billions of rand.
The Guptas have said their companies made only R2.3 billion from state contracts. But Ajay Gupta told a government minister they wanted to increase their slice of the cake from R6bn to R8bn, and most of the cash was stashed in Dubai.
Madonsela has put Zuma in a tight corner by forcing him to appoint a commission of inquiry into state capture with massive resources. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng must appoint a sole judge to lead the inquiry, which must conclude its work within six months.
Zuma said yesterday he would study the report and respond later.
In a reply during question time in the National Assembly yesterday, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said Zuma might not go now despite the scandals surrounding him. This was after Agang MP Andries Tloumma wanted to know if Zuma would resign following yesterday’s court order and the many scandals involving the president.
“I don’t think it is a question that deserves an answer from me. He is not a member of the ANC, that is his problem,” Ramaphosa said of Tloumma. “If he was a member of the ANC, he would know how things are done in the ANC.”
Madonsela report revealed that Jonas was offered R600 million by Ajay Gupta and R600 000 in cash. Madonsela said the cabinet and Zuma did not investigate the allegations against the Guptas.
She also weighed in on the intervention of the state in a matter between the Guptas and the four major banks.
“Cabinet appears to have taken an extraordinary and unprecedented step regarding intervention into what appears to be a dispute between a private company co-owned by the president’s friends and his son,” she said.
“This needs to be looked at in relation to a possible conflict of interest between the president as head of state and his private interest as a friend and father as envisaged (by) the Executive Ethics Code, which regulates conflict of interest and the constitution, which requires a high level of professional ethics,” Madonsela said.
She questioned the appointment of the Eskom board.
Madonsela also questioned the contracts given to Gupta-owned Tegeta and the prepayment of more than R500m to the company for the supply of coal.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said last night they had noted the report, and they would respond to its contents later. But he defended the more than R500m prepayment to Tegeta.
“People feel we gave this company more than R500m, that this was out of the ordinary. It has been done before with other companies. They have now paid the money and we are settled with them,” he said.
It needs to be looked at in relation to possible conflict of interest between the president as head of state and as a friend and father
WHILE many citizen activists in Gauteng converged on Pretoria yesterday, a colourful group set off from the high court in Joburg to increase awareness of a different kind and memorialise the late Fezekile Kuzwayo, Zuma’s rape accuser, known in the media as “Khwezi”.
At the same time, Zuma was retracting his application to interdict former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report, around 150 demonstrators took to the streets in a bid to reclaim the identity and dignity of Kuzwayo.
And unlike the EFF march, there were no clashes with the police.
Dressed in purple T-shirts that bore slogans such as “Silence is not consent” and “Beware – women crossing the line”, the marchers sang “Enough is Enough!” and danced.
Comprising mainly women, they represented various nonprofit organisations (NPOs) united in a common cause.
Their message and hashtag were clear: “Her name is Fezeka”.
Until her death, Kuzwayo was known as Khwezi to conceal her identity. Despite the courts having acquitted Zuma on the rape charge, Mpumi Mathabela from the One in Nine campaign, the organisers of the march, said: “Today marks 11 years to the day that Jacob Zuma raped Fezeka.”
She said November 2 was the day Kuzwayo accused Zuma of the alleged rape.
“Today is to reclaim Fezeka’s dignity and her identification. We chose the day that she remembers – rather than the date he went to court.”
The One in Nine campaign was started in February this year. Mathabela said it was a merger of NPOs with a vested interest in women’s rights, including People Opposing Women Abuse.
The marchers held posters with “Guilty” stamped in red across Zuma’s face. A few held #FeesMustFall slogans.
Mathabela said Kuzwayo lived a life in hiding and couldn’t enjoy the things most people take for granted.
“She was exiled and chased away by her family. She had to live in Amsterdam and Tanzania. Even when she came home in 2013, she couldn’t enjoy a normal life.
“Today’s campaign highlights the criminal justice system and its problems. She was killed by Jacob Zuma and the criminal justice system,” claimed Mathabela.
Hassen Lorgat, an activist and a supporter of the campaign, was one of the few men on the march, which made its way from the high court along the Rea Vaya path, to Constitution Hill in Braamfontein.
Lorgat was at the court when Zuma was tried in February 2006. “I remember standing there when Zuma was taken in. I’m supporting this because it is just great to see so many citizen activists.”
She was killed by Zuma and the justice system