AJAY Gupta boasted to Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas that his family had made R6 billion from the state and wanted to increase this amount, but complained that the National Treasury posed a stumbling block, according to former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on state capture released on Wednesday.
This emerged in Madonsela’s interview with Jonas and was repeated in her interview with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who said Jonas confided in him about a meeting with the Guptas into which he was unwittingly lured by President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane.
The comment was made in the same conversation in which the Guptas offered Jonas the post of finance minister and told as a condition he would be required to fire the director-general of finance, Lungisa Fuzile.
“Mr Ajay Gupta continued to speak. He disclosed names of ‘comrades’ they were working with and providing protection to.
“He mentioned that collectively as a family they had ‘made a lot of money from the state’ and that they wanted to increase the amount from R6bn to R8bn, and that a bulk of their funds were held in Dubai,” said the report, titled “State of Capture”.
The report continues: “According to Mr Jonas, Mr A Gupta further indicated that National Treasury were a stumbling block to the family’s business ambitions.
“As part of the offer to become finance minister, Mr Jonas would be expected to remove the current director-general of National Treasury and other key members of executive management.”
Madonsela said she interviewed Gordhan in September and he told her Jonas had told him, before then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene was fired by Zuma in December, that something was troubling him, but did not enter into details.
However, after Gordhan was brought back to the portfolio later that month, Jonas relayed his meeting with the Gupta family and informed him of both their “offer” to him and of the claim they had made R6bn from the state.
“It is worrying that the Gupta family was aware or may have been aware that minister Nene was removed six weeks after Deputy Minister Jonas advised him that he had been allegedly offered a job by the Gupta family in exchange for extending favours to their family business,” said Madonsela.
She added the board of Eskom failed in its duty to place the national interest first and instead performed favours for companies owned by the Guptas.
Madonsela notably concludes that Eskom deliberately prejudiced Glencore in order to benefit Tegeta, the Gupta-owned exploration company that won contracts to supply the power utility with coal.
She finds furthermore the board may have violated the Public Finance Management Act by approving, at a hastily convened meeting after-hours, an advance payment of more than R659 million to Tegeta when it emerged that it needed funds to buy out OCH.