Johannesburg - The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) on Tuesday confirmed it had made the first of a series of submissions to the commission of inquiry into state capture.
The first submission made to the commission, chaired by deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, is on the embattled state-owned entity Denel.
Outa in a statement said in its submission, it shows how Denel moved from being a profitable company with an order book of more than R35 billion in 2015 to one that came "perilously close to handing over defence technology to the Guptas".
"Under minister Lynne Brown’s direction, the Denel board was replaced in 2015 with a board which planned the capture of the entity.
"She approved the appointment of a new chairperson – lawyer Lugisani Daniel Mantsha, who was once disbarred then reinstated and is now Zuma’s lawyer."
In September 2017, Outa laid charges of corruption against Mantsha over Denel's joint venture with Gupta-linked company VR Laser Asia, Denel-Asia, to supply weapons to the Asian market.
The deal would have seen the Guptas selling Denel’s weapons to India without any benefit to the parastatal.
Former Denel CEO Zwelakhe Ntshepe was also implicated in this deal, which was blocked by the National Treasury and ultimately collapsed.
Outa said the submission on Denel was the first of a number of submissions planned, which build on Outa’s 2017 report to Parliament, No Room to Hide: A President caught in the act.
"Outa’s state capture submissions aim to outline how appointees under former president Jacob Zuma’s leadership manipulated policies and entities in the interests of themselves or the Guptas, rather than in the interests of the country," the organisation said.