Guptas spying on Trevor Manuel and many others – report
His wife, Absa chairperson Maria Ramos, may end up laying criminal charges against the family.
Lindiwe Sisulu, Maria Ramos and Trevor Manuel at the 2014 presidential Inauguration in the Nelson Mandela Amphitheatre at the Union Buildings, Pretoria. Picture: GCIS
The Sunday Times has reported that in a further revelation in the #GuptaLeaks emails, a top Gupta executive was in possession of the travel plans of bank bosses and business rivals.
According to Absa CEO Maria Ramos’ spokesperson, this could amount to criminal conduct, and Ramos is considering various legal options.
She and her husband, former finance minister Trevor Manuel, allegedly had their travel plans shared with the Guptas, information reportedly in a spreadsheet featuring the names and travel plans of many others.
It’s not known how the family’s employee came to obtain this information, which home affairs and state security would have been privy to.
It has already been revealed that the Guptas have received special favours from civil servants at home affairs, including the former minister, Malusi Gigaba.
Other bank executives on whom the family reportedly collected travel information since 2015 was Rand Merchant Bank’s founders and Investec CEO Stephen Koseff.
To obtain the kind of information from border control that is in the #GuptaLeaks email would normally require a court order from law enforcement.
Many of those the Sunday Times contacted confirmed that the information on the various travel movements of the people involved was correct.
FirstRand chairman Laurie Dippenaar told the paper he also believed his phone calls had also been spied on.
In 2015, many banks, including Absa, had put the Gupta family’s accounts on notice about their intentions to close their bank accounts following multimillion-rand suspicious transactions.
Rival company Dimension Data’s chairman Jeremy Ord also appeared on the spreadsheet. He believed this was because his company had been in “tender situations against them”.
A security expert said the matter was a serious security concern and should already have been under investigation by the Hawks.
Home affairs said the information could have been supplied by other entities, including travel agents.
