Parliament directs committees to investigate state capture allegations

Ajay and Atul Gupta. Picture: Muntu Vilakazi
Ajay and Atul Gupta. Picture: Muntu Vilakazi
Parliament has directed four committees to “urgently probe” allegations of state capture involving cabinet ministers.

In a statement‚ Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said that House chairperson of committees Cedric Frolick had on Thursday written to the Home Affairs‚ Mineral Resources‚ Public Enterprises and Transport committees‚ to advise them to “ensure immediate engagement with the concerned Ministers to ensure that Parliament gets to the bottom of the allegations“.

This comes in the wake of the “Gupta leaks“‚ a series of damning emails linking several high profile ministers to the Gupta family.

These include:

- Then Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba who signed off on the Gupta family’s appeal after their citizenship was denied. Gigaba has since said the appeal was like many others he had dealt with‚ and had been signed after all the information had been considered.

- Mineral Resources Minister Mosebezi Zwane‚ whose CV was allegedly sent to the Gupta family two months before he was appointed to the position.

- Several state owned enterprises have also been implicated in the leaks with information detailing how Denel director Dan Mantsha was to be chauffeur-driven around Dubai‚ how a deluxe hotel suite art a luxurious Dubai hotel was booked for Matshela Koka‚ who later became Eskom CEO‚ and how the family was approached by a board member of SAA who asked them to get him onto the board of Transnet.

Mothapo said there was no specific deadline set for the submission of the outcome‚ but committees have “been urged to begin with the work and report their recommendations to the house urgently“.

“Parliament‚ as a representative body of the people of South Africa‚ shoulders the Constitutional responsibility of ensuring that matters of major public interest are dealt with as expected by the people‚” he said.

The Democratic Alliance has been lobbying Parliament to establish an ad hoc committee to probe all aspects of state capture‚ however no decision was taken on the matter during the chief whip’s forum last week. It was due to be discussed further again this week.

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said the latest development was a “cynical attempt to try and thwart an ad hoc committee“.

He said an ad hoc committee would take a wide ranging view of all the aspects of state capture‚ and not just a “piecemeal” view as Parliament was currently attempting to do.

Steenhuisen said he viewed Parliament’s move as being “in bad faith” as the matter had been set down for substantive discussion during a meeting of the chief whips’ forum this week.

The Public Protector‚ Busisiwe Mkhwebane‚ announced last week that she would be launching her own probe into state capture at state owned entities following the leak of the emails.

A Parliamentary inquiry into the state of affairs at Eskom is also due to start in the Public Enterprises committee this week which would investigate the “rot” at the energy utility and would among other things touch on the Gupta-linked Trillian deal.

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