Hey, Minister Zwane, here’s one of those Gupta emails you say you’ve never seen

In a frankly astonishing admission of ignorance, Mining Minister Mosebenzi Zwane told reporters that he had “never seen even a single” Gupta email from the #GuptaLeaks.

He went as far as to say that he would consider it “nice” if newspapers would publish the actual emails. However, that is precisely what has happened, and continues to happen.

Messages about the minister have been widely subjected to media scrutiny and examples of these emails have been available for weeks.

In an interview uploaded to Twitter on Tuesday morning by SABC journalist Aldrin Sampear after Sampear asked him if Zwane maintained his innocence on allegations that he was in the pocket of the Gupta family, Zwane responded: “Well, this is not court.

“It’s good that people are beginning to open up and deal with these issues in the manner that they must deal with these issues … and stop alleging and judging people before the courts have done so.”

When asked if he was saying that the #GuptaLeaks emails were fake, he said: “I’ve not even seen one email. It would have been nice if these people who are alleging would actually post these emails to your papers so that we know what they are talking about.

“I’ve never seen even a single one before.”

Take a look at the video below.

Q to Minister Zwane "do you maintain your innocence" on #GuptaEmails allegations – Zwane: this is not court… #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/c4g5u4Y0B9

— Aldrin Sampear (@AldrinSampear) June 20, 2017

However, not only have many of these emails been publicly available since May 28, more continue to be released all the time from a trove of as many as 200,000 individual messages.

In one of the first such tranche leaks released by the Sunday Times last month, Zwane’s CV was even part of it.

The Sunday Times reported that the “Guptas were sent Mosebenzi Zwane’s CV a month before he was appointed minister of mineral resources”.

The leaked email in question appeared to reveal that Gupta staff had coached Zwane on how to “handle media conferences, including questions about his relationship with the Guptas”.

There were even details about how Zwane flew on a Gupta jet to Dubai and the family appeared to pick up the tab for his accommodation.

Take a look below (especially if your name is Mosebenzi Zwane):

#GuptaEmails: Zwane Jet and CV by SundayTimesZA on Scribd

Zwane also told journalists on Tuesday: “If you are black in this country, people do not stop calling you names, especially when you don’t agree with the common lie.

“It’s painful. It always happens to black people,” he said.

Zwane said the people should learn to respect each other and, if there was an issue, it must be addressed rather than labelling people on allegations.

Parliament chairperson of commitees Cedric Frolick announced yesterday that the House would launch a probe on allegations of state capture contained in the leaked #GuptaEmails.

He instructed the chairpersons of the home affairs, mineral resources, public enterprises and transport committees to engage with the affected ministers.

In response to this probe, Zwane said he was “happy” that the matter was now under investigation.

“I am happy that the parliament is dealing with it.”

He also addressed the concerns raised by the ANC with regards to the new Mining Charter he revealed last week.

Media reports suggested that the ANC was not happy with some of the changes in the charter, especially the impact the new level of black ownership from 26% to 30% might have on jobs.

Zwane said he had met with the ANC, including its top six officials, and they all agreed with the charter.

Minister Mosebenzi Zwane says he even consulted the ANC Top 6 on the mining charter which they agreed to #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/XrX52ewIxm

— Aldrin Sampear (@AldrinSampear) June 20, 2017