Vanara lied about Bongo, says Parliament secretary
‘There was no bribery …Vanara knows I was there’
ANOTHER individual – originally said to be a State witness in the Bongani Bongo and Ntuthuzelo Vanara matter – yesterday denied that he was approached to be a State witness.
He says the conversation between ANC NEC member Bongo and SABC head of legal Vanara was about a case of gender-based violence linked to Vanara.
Siyabulela Nyathi says Vanara had sought advice on how to deal with a domestic violence case after a fight with his partner.
“There was no bribery there. I heard in the media that I was also a State witness. To date, the NPA has not contacted me. Vanara knows I was there and that he wasn’t bribed, that’s why he didn’t open a case. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t called,” Nyathi said.
Bongo was charged with attempting to bribe Vanara in 2019. The case, however, was not opened by Vanara but by then-DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen.
Former Joint Committee of Ethics and Members Interest secretary Shiham Langkar has also told The Star that police told her she was going to be a State witness, but was not contacted by police after she told them she saw Bongo and Vanara laughing together on the day in question.
Langkar said she was in the Ethics and Members Interest meeting in Parliament where Bongo provided proof of his earlier meetings with Vanara, contradicting earlier versions that Vanara had not met Bongo before the incident.
Langkar says she worked closely with Vanara but his allegations “just didn’t add up”.
“Two years later, the police had not contacted me on being a State witness. I can confirm that a former chief whip instructed the committee to ‘deal with’ MPs not aligned to the president.
“That’s what happened to Bongo, he was being dealt with. I saw Bongo and Vanara together. I was in the office on the day in question. They were laughing together.
“Vanara didn’t complete the SABC inquiry. Parliament didn’t get a report. But as soon as there were allegations against Bongo, Vanara got a job at the SABC,” Langkar said.
The revelations follow the withdrawal of the corruption charges against Bongo last week at the Western Cape High Court. In court, the issue of the charge against Bongo being laid by Steenhuisen came under the microscope.
Bongo’s advocate, Mike Hellens SC, said the charge against Bongo laid by Steenhuisen and which accused Bongo of having bribed Vanara was inaccurate.
Bongo had pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempting to bribe Vanara in a bid to collapse a 2017 parliamentary enquiry into SOEs and Eskom.
At the time, Vanara was evidence leader in the parliamentary investigation of Eskom, which was running parallel to another inquiry into the capture of state-owned enterprises, now known as the Zondo Commission.
Former Constitutional Court Justice Johann Kriegler and Freedom Under Law (FUL) are calling for Western Cape High Court Judge John Hlophe to be suspended over his conduct in the case against Bongo. Hlophe dismissed the corruption case against Bongo.
Langkar said she hoped the court would have invited her and not relied on information from Steenhuisen and others, who weren’t there. “We knew he was lying,” Langkar said.
Nyathi has asked Parliament to look into Vanara and the date that a genderbased violence case was opened against him. “It’s hard to speak out against our bosses because we fear victimisation. Many people on that floor knew that Vanara was lying but couldn’t say anything out of fear,” Nyathi said.
The Star tried to get comment from Vanara but he had not commented by deadline.