Cape Town – Ajay Gupta boasted to Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas that his family had made R6 billion from the South African government and wanted to increase this amount but complained that 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 had 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 that 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 R6 billion to R8 billion and that a bulk of their funds were held in Dubai,” the report, titled “State of Capture”, said.
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 that 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 that they had made R6 billion from the State.
Madonsela’s investigation, the last of her seven-year term, was in large part prompted by Jonas’s confirmation in February of persistent rumours that the Gupta family had approached him to replace Nene.
African News Agency