Mzwanele Manyi slams Barbara Hogan for ‘lying’

Businessman Mzwanele Manyi has slammed Barbara Hogan for alleged lies in both a sworn affidavit and in her testimony at the commission of inquiry into state capture.

In the affidavit, Hogan had named Mzwanele Manyi as being part of an entourage that was with former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga after a meeting with then president Jacob Zuma and the Eskom board. On Tuesday, she told Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that Manyi was not, in fact, part of the group, who she said she found out later was from the National Union of Metal Workers SA (NUMSA).

While Zondo noted Hogan’s correction, which appeared to be a memory lapse or mistake rather than purposeful dishonesty, the businessman accused her on Twitter of having told a “blue lie”, which is, according to a journal published in the US National Library of Medicine, “a pervasive form of lying in the adult world that is told purportedly to benefit a collective”.

READ MORE: How Zuma interfered in Eskom governance – Hogan

In a second tweet, Manyi slammed the former minister for “lies” and inconsistencies in her testimony.

“Barbara Hogan has withdrawn her LIES that I was at Eskom with Mr Maroga. She [now] says she was not even there, she was misinformed, yet it’s on her sworn affidavit. She couldn’t even get the date right, whether it’s 09/11/2009 or 09/09/2009. She owes me an APOLOGY!!”

Hogan is not the first person to have gotten details wrong in her testimony at the commission.

The credibility of former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas was initially questioned by some on social media when he admitted that he did not know for certain which Gupta brother was present when he was allegedly offered the position of finance minister.

Vytjie Mentor’s testimony was questioned soon after, more widely than Jonas’s, due to a similar alleged inability to tell the Guptas apart as well as a failure to distinguish between businessman Fana Hlongwane and ANC politician Brian Hlongwa.

READ MORE: Details: The things Ajay Gupta claims Vytjie Mentor lied about

Mentor was also accused by Ajay Gupta of having lied after she allegedly got several details about the family’s Saxonwold compound wrong.

He provided photos in a bid to show that Mentor’s descriptions of the residence were incorrect. These included her description of white marble steps which are actually black granite, and her description of a giant pillar that he says does not exist.

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”.

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