Details: The things Ajay Gupta claims Vytjie Mentor lied about

The Sowetan on Thursday published details from a 42-page affidavit submitted by Gupta family patriarch Ajay to the State Capture Commission of Inquiry that may throw some doubts on the credibility of former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor’s testimony to the commission.

Mentor in her testimony last month went into elaborate detail about her alleged meeting at the Guptas’ Saxonwold mansion. She implicated then president Jacob Zuma as being at the house before Ajay allegedly placed pressure on her to accede to his requests, which included meddling with an SAA route to India in return for a supposed promise to Mentor that she would be made the minister of public enterprises in a cabinet reshuffle.

Mentor described cream marble stairs, bathrooms with a gold finish, exquisite mirrors and a chef after she was supposedly taken inside the Gupta compound in Saxonwold eight years ago.

Mentor told the commission she was picked up at the airport and then taken to the mansion from the Gupta family’s Sahara Computers company.

Ajay has responded to some of her allegations in his affidavit by claiming:

• He would not have asked Mentor or anyone else to cancel SAA’s India route since he and his family supposedly had no stake in the competitor airline Jet Airlines.
• He attached photos of the Saxonwold house to counter Mentor’s description of the house. The steps in her description were white marble, but he says they are in fact black granite.
• He says there is no “giant pillar” in the reception area, as she claimed.
• Ajay added that it would have been impossible for Mentor to have been given a plate of lamb curry, as she claimed, since his family are strict Hindu vegetarians and “it is anathema to suggest that meat of any form let alone in the form of chopped-up sheep would be allowed to enter our home … and [be] served in our home”.
• He denies wearing a “pointing finger” ring.
• He said it was ridiculous of Mentor to have testified that his brothers Atul and Rajesh had picked her up at the airport with a placard bearing her name, as this was a “basic function” that the chairman of their companies (Atul) would never have been made to do.

Ajay also attempted to repudiate testimony from former Government Communication and Information System head Themba Maseko that he had allegedly tried to bully him into channelling R600 million in state advertising money to Gupta companies.

Ajay admits to meeting Maseko, but reportedly claims in his affidavit that he was just trying to get “clarity” on how to get government advertising.

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