Guptas must answer to allegations by Vytjie Mentor in Parliament
15 March 2016
Just as Minister of CoGTA, Des van Rooyen, was dodging a question put to him by News24 on whether the Gupta family had offered him the job of Finance Minister, former ANC MP, Vytjie Mentor, alleged that the Guptas had previously offered her the position of Minister of Public Enterprises.
In the light of this serious allegation, I urge the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises – a position previously held by Mentor – to accede to my request to summon the Guptas to appear before the Committee to allow them to answer to the mounting questions over their capture of state entities.
In a post on Facebook yesterday, Mentor stated that the Guptas “previously asked me to become Minister of Public Enterprises when Barbara Hogan got the chop, provided that I would drop the SAA flight-route to India and give to them. I refused and so I was never made a Minister. The President was in another room when they offered me this in Saxonworld.” (see image below)
There is growing evidence that the Guptas are complicit with President Zuma in capturing the apparatus of state for their personal gain.
We cannot allow the 8.2 million jobless South Africans to suffer while the President and his cronies benefit from a patronage network that only benefits the connected few.
Both the Guptas and the President must provide the South African people with the answers they deserve.
Update:
President “Angazi’s” response to Vytjie Mentor won’t cut it
15 March 2016
In response to the allegation by former senior ANC MP, Vytjie Mentor, that she had been offered the position of Minister of Public Enterprises by the Guptas, the Presidency stated this evening that Zuma was “unable to comment on any alleged incident” as he "had no recollection of Ms Mentor.”
Given the seriousness of the allegation, the President’s response is insulting to all South Africans who have witnessed Zuma and the Guptas capture the state apparatus for their personal gain.
Ms Mentor served as the Chairperson of the ANC Caucus from 2004 to 2008 and would have worked with Zuma in the Fourth Parliament in his capacity of Deputy President and Leader of Government Business.
Further to this, Ms Mentor was fired as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises after it came to light that Transnet had paid R155,456 for her to accompany the President on a state visit to China in 2010.
And it was Ms Mentor who slammed ANC members last month for applauding the President’s new found commitment to repaying a portion of the funds spent at Nkandla:
“The praise-singers are praising President Zuma for doing what he should have done two years ago. They are praising him for daring the nation on so many, many occasions by refusing to pay what he knew all along he had to pay.”
Clearly the President would rather forget Ms Mentor than acknowledge her allegations, in the same way that he feigned ignorance when the Guptas jet landed at Waterkloof and when R246 million was spent to upgrade his homestead at Nkandla.
But South Africans deserve more than President “Angazi’s” response. The President cannot simply pretend that Ms Mentor never existed. He must address these allegations with the seriousness they demand, and give us the answers we deserve.
Statements issued Natasha Mazzone MP, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, 15 March 2016
