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By Vhahangwele Nemakonde

Digital Deputy News Editor


The most bizarre claims made by Gigaba at Zondo so far 

Gigaba told the commission his estranged wife told him her father was a businessman living in New York City, among other strange claims.


Former finance minister Malusi Gigaba used his appearance at the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture on Thursday to rip apart Norma Mngoma’s testimony.

Gigaba said he did not agree with anything Mngoma said in her affidavit, and said pretty much everything she claimed was fabricated.

He also slated her for “disrespecting” his father and brother-in-law, and also for dragging their children into the drama.

ALSO READ: Norma airs Malusi Gigaba’s dirty laundry – all 100 suits’ worth

“You are dealing with a person with whom we are undergoing a divorce, the details of which she has misrepresented before the commission under oath.

“She claims in the affidavit that she’s the one who initiated the processes of the divorce and I proved in one of the annexures I attached in response to her initial affidavit that in actual fact, that’s not true,” said Gigaba.

“The process of that divorce, involves great bitterness about the settlement that is probable even under the contract in which we are married.”

Gigaba said while some thought Mngoma’s testimony was “explosive”, it only exposed her personality.

Here are some of the bombshells Gigaba dropped about his estranged wife:

  • “The commission was in some instances and to a greater extent, turned into a forum to solicit settlement, to canvass issues which should be canvassed during the divorce process.”
  • “In any setting or any household, one is expected to be able to distinguish between the dead and the living and when somebody has no respect for the dead and the living alike, it creates such emotional strain and sometimes anger that it becomes difficult to deal with the issues that have been raised.”
  • “I think we should have tried to keep our families out of this and not try to portray them in negative light.”
  • “I am still intent on protecting my children. I do not believe my children should be dragged through public degrading and spoken about in any manner that is going to undermine and demean their integrity. They’re too young.”
  • “She approached me in January this year to finalise our divorce settlement. She said: “Offer me something.  I cannot just walk away without anything. I would like you to offer me something financially, I said yes.”
  • “She asked me to withdraw the case at the Pretoria High Court which involves her damaging a vehicle which had been lent to me by a friend and said she would then not submit an affidavit to the commission. I said, I can’t withdraw the case because I’m not the one who laid the charge.”

ALSO READ: ‘Creative imagination’: Gigaba tells Zondo that his wife is a liar

  • “The commission is being used to solicit a divorce settlement.”
  • “I never referred to the Guptas as my advisors, not even jokingly.”
  • “The 20 visits to Saxonwold, the 200 suits which I own and the trip to India were all fabricated.”
  • “Even if those suits are 100, I took some time to look at those stores that sell suits, they don’t even have 100 suits in their shops, but I’m supposed to have between 100 and 200 and I don’t run a department store. These are lies and the commission was being taken for a ride.”
  • “The visits were social. I didn’t discuss business with them. I was not in business and still not in business right now.”
  • “When I met Miss Mngoma, she projected to me an image of a high-flying individual who was from a very well-to-do family.”
  • “She had told me that her father was a businessman living in New York City, that she herself regularly visited New York and, on occasion, would win awards from Mark Shuttleworth that would require her to go do some work in New York City.”
  • “She would come to see me in different vehicles that she said were hers, including an ML 320 vehicle, a BMW 120 series. I knew her to be this high-flying IT executive who had worked at IBM and various other top notch, well-paying IT companies.”

ALSO READ: Gigaba’s porn video was leaked by one of ANC top six, Zondo told

  • “Around 2011, she told me that her father in New York City passed away and left her a very handsome inheritance that was held on her behalf by her uncle, called Mthoko. I have never met this Mthoko. And so my understanding was that this was a very wealthy woman from a well-to-do family whose relatives were living in New York and various other places.”
  • “After our wedding. I was in a meeting when she came to me and said we had to go on honeymoon. I didn’t question her, I don’t think anyone questions your wife when you think they have the means when they say to you I have a surprise for you, I’m taking you on holiday.”
  • “In this case, this was my wealthy wife. So I went on holiday in Mauritius, which was our honeymoon. We enjoyed ourselves and spent two or three days and we came back. That the trip was facilitated by Miss Myeni, I only heard it for the first time from Miss Mngoma. All along I had presumed her to be responsible for the trip and that she paid for it from her inheritance and wealth.”

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