Gupta ally quits as Gordhan reportedly continues to clean up

Richard Seleke, the public enterprises minister who found himself implicated in the #GuptaLeaks e-mail saga, has reached a settlement with the presidency that will see him vacate his post this week, Business Day has reported.

This is the latest in Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s attempts to crack down on those public servants who were implicated in “state capture” or were linked to the Guptas.

State-owned entities and the department of public enterprises were allegedly two avenues used to loot the state.

Seleke was appointed director-general in the department of public enterprises after leaving his post as former head of the Free State department of economic development, where Mining Minister Mosebenzi Zwane was the MEC until September 2015.

READ MORE: Malema takes aim at ‘Stalinist’ Gordhan

In July 2017, Amabhungane reported the #GuptaLeaks showed that Seleke’s CV was emailed to then president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane on June 29, 2015.

In the same month, lobby group Outa laid charges of fraud, extortion, corruption and high treason against Seleke after the leaked #GuptaLeaks e-mails indicated he sent Ashu Chawla, chief executive of the Guptas’ Sahara Computers, a spreadsheet in 2015 showing how the Gupta empire would get hundreds of millions of US dollars for brokering Transnet’s locomotive deal with China South Railways.

A source told Business Day the minister was “willing to step aside”.

Presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko said the presidency would not comment on the contents of the settlement, as it is a confidential agreement between employer and employee.

While some have praised Gordhan’s clean-up of state owned enterprises, EFF leader Julius Malema has been outspoken about what he calls a “reign of terror” implemented by the minister.

Malema recently called Gordhan a “Stalinist”, a “control freak” and a “gangster” and accused him of removing people from their positions without going through proper processes.

“We shall never support any process of reaching punishment without due course,” Malema said.

Malema was speaking at a recent press conference, where he lashed out at what he referred to as “a dangerous regrouping of the neoliberal market-driven agenda, mainly led by Pravin Gordhan”.

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