Mentor forced to concede her Saxonwold visit dates could be wrong

After two days of grilling, former ANC member of parliament Vytjie Mentor yesterday conceded that the meeting she claimed to have had at the Gupta family’s Saxonwold compound 10 years ago – when Ajay Gupta allegedly offered her the post of minister of public enterprises – could have taken place in September and not October.

She was being questioned on key aspects of her earlier evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by Judge Raymond Zondo.

Confirming the veracity of the date Gupta is said to have made Mentor the offer, with former president Jacob Zuma present, has dominated proceedings at the commission since she took the stand this week.

Under cross examination by commission senior counsel Mahlape Sello, Mentor maintained scepticism at travel information supplied by SA Airways, imploring Deputy Chief Justice Zondo to call a witness independent of the national carrier to assist in verifying her October 15, 2015 return-flight travel records from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

She also brought into question records supplied by the department of home affairs, which disputed her version that Atul Gupta was part of the official department of trade and industry investment delegation that flew to China 10 years ago.

Referring to last year’s parliamentary inquiry into home affairs, Mentor said she had “a serious problem” with the commission being reliant on information supplied by the department.

With SAA travel records not backing up Mentor’s account that she flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg on October 15, 2010, she has been forced to concede that the trip could have taken place in September.

Amid Ajay punching holes in her testimony that she visited the Saxonwold home, was offered mutton curry and offered the Cabinet post in return for SAA dropping the lucrative Johannesburg-Mumbai route taken over by the Gupta-linked Jet Airways, corroboration of her testimony with flight records has become crucial.

To back her claim that the Gupta meeting took place, Mentor has:

• Asked the commission’s legal team to investigate if the Gupta family owned a black twin cab van, allegedly used to transport her from OR Tambo International Airport to the Sahara family business before the Saxonwold visit.
• Taken issue with her telephone records being in possession of the commission, suggesting its legal team was “more concerned with protecting the confidentiality of Atul Gupta’s travel records than other people’s confidentiality”.
• Disclosed the 2010 Gupta Saxonwold meeting to members of parliament’s portfolio committee on intelligence.

Taking issue with the commission’s legal team’s style of cross-examination of her evidence, Mentor said: “I feel that I have been questioned all the way, all the time, with my evidence not having been led in a balanced way.

“For the better part of being on the witness stand, I have had to deal with issues that are not corroborating with my version.”

Launching an objection at the commission’s line of questioning, her counsel, advocate Anthony Gotz, expressed unhappiness at how Congress of the People (Cope) MP Dennis Bloem’s statement before the inquiry was put to his client, saying a large tract of Bloem’s affidavit corroborated Mentor’s evidence.

Mentor had informed Bloem and fellow MP Hlengiwe Mgabadeli about the Saxonwold meeting.

Responded Zondo: “I can assure you that this legal team is not intending to favour or not to favour your version. It is only fair that certain things be raised with you.”

– brians@citizen.co.za

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