Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has hit back at allegations that she allegedly received money from the Gupta family.
In a tweet on Tuesday evening in which she responds to the article after it was shared by accountant and commentator Khaya Sithole, she said the allegations were “fake” and she demanded to see bank statements.
“Read the article I never received any money, never even knew my FNB account was flagged, never used FNB account to transfer the allowance I received from China as Diplomat. Let them show all the bank statements where the money was transferred,” she challenged.
The report came from the global non-profit reporting group the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which published their article on Tuesday alleging that global banking giant HSBC had leaked banking records to them suggesting that Mkhwebane had been “flagged” for having received at least $5,000 (R70,000 at the current exchange rate) on at least one occasion from the infamous family about five years ago, two years before she became the public protector.
“The bank flagged a payment worth over US$5,000 into Mkhwebane’s account at First National Bank in South Africa in June 2014, during the height of the Gupta family’s influence over the Zuma government, the records show,” reads part of the OCCRP report. “The money was sent from an account at HSBC’s subsidiary in Hong Kong.
“First National Bank declined to comment, citing client confidentiality,” they continued.
HSCB has reportedly been tracking down the network of Gupta-linked accounts and companies around the world.
Mkhwebane’s spokesman Oupa Segwale told the OCCRP that his boss had no links to the Guptas and denied receiving any money from them.
In a statement released by Segalwe on Tuesday evening, he said: “Advocate Mkhwebane would like to place on the record the fact that she heard for the first time from the OCCRP last Thursday that she had been ‘flagged’. HSBC has never brought this ‘flagging’ to her attention and she has absolutely no links with the Guptas.”
At the time she allegedly received the money she was about to leave her position “in China as a South African Embassy official”, the report clarified.
“She then returned to the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa.”
The transaction was flagged as part of an investigation into the Guptas’ controversial involvement with China South Rail in a $1.5 billion contract to sell locomotives to Transnet.
Segalwe disputed this in his statement, saying the OCCRP had admitted there was no indication that the source of the funds were from the Gupta network, or that there was proof she had done anything inappropriate, only alleging she was “flagged” as being part of the network of payments by the bank.
Segalwe said it was “strange that today, the organisation reports that she was ‘flagged’ as having financial ties to the Guptas”.
You can read OCCRP’s full report here.
(Edited by Charles Cilliers)
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