JOHANNESBURG - The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) on Friday said it laid
charges of corruption against Denel chairman, Dan Mantsha over his involvement
in state capture.
OUTA said in statement, the case was opened at Brooklyn
police station in Wednesday.
Ben Theron OUTA’s Chief Operating Officer said: “Dan Mantsha sold out his country to pay his
municipal bill.” “He tried to give the Guptas access to South Africa’s
defence technology business, thereby handing them billions of dollars in
lucrative deals. He shared confidential government documents with the Guptas
and took favours from them in trips to India
and Dubai.
“Why is a man like this still allowed to chair the Denel
board? In our opinion, the Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown should
fire him.”
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Mantsha was appointed as chairman and non-executive director
of the state-owned entity Denel in July 2015. “As soon as he was appointed, Mantsha started working with
the Guptas to share with them his access to this lucrative defence industry. “He attempted to tie Denel into a deal that would have given
the Guptas access to billions of dollars in defence deals in Asia.”
Theron said Mantsha seemed to have been in financial
difficulty when he was appointed to Denel and apparently found the Guptas
useful. “Mantsha’s role was to try to sell this joint venture to the
National Treasury and Ministry of Public Enterprises. They claimed the joint
venture had the potential to do business in Asia
to the value of $9.2 billion over five years.”
Theron said the dealings that ensued between Denel and
various Gupta entities can be measurably attributed to Mantsha’s sinister relationship
with the Gupta family.
- BUSINESS REPORT
ONLINE