Shivambu vows the EFF will expose ‘Gupta captives’

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy leader Floyd Shivambu has vowed that the red berets will expose all current and former ministers as well as persons closely linked to the controversial Gupta family.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Shivambu said that should individuals linked to the Guptas lie when testifying at the state capture inquiry, the EFF will “expose them one by one”.

Shivambu said the EFF would go after Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, former communications minister Faith Muthambi, former chairperson of the South African Airways (SAA) board Dudu Myeni, former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane, as well as former Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Des Van Rooyen – who was finance minister for a few days in 2015 after Zuma axed Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.

A day before Nene’s testimony at the inquiry, the EFF called on the minister to tell the truth at the commission and for him to step down thereafter, threatening to reveal many “dealings and dark secrets” that would compromise the finance minister.

Following Nene’s testimony at the inquiry revealing that during his tenure as deputy finance minister and during his first stint in his current position he had actually met the Guptas, the red berets and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have since called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to accept Nene’s resignation.

This is a result of the finance minister reportedly phoning the president requesting that he be relieved of his duties in the finance ministry.

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Meanwhile, EFF spokesperson Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said on eNCA Tuesday morning that Nene should be sacked from his position because a minister of finance must be a person beyond reproach and a person of integrity.

Ndlozi said the revelation that Nene had met with the Guptas may deter investors from ploughing money into a country whose finances are overseen by a minister who lied about meeting with the family alleged to be at the centre of state capture.

“That lie was very important because it was a denial of being party not once, not twice, not three times, not four times. Yesterday there were some revelations that he had actually met them [Guptas] 11 times,” Ndlozi said.

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The EFF spokesperson said it was concerning that Nene had missed an opportunity to confess about meeting the Guptas to former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas when Jonas met with Nene to inform him about the alleged offer of a R600 million bribe and the position of finance minister allegedly offered by one of the Gupta brothers.

Ndlozi said the EFF had in parliament posed questions to Nene about meeting the Guptas which the finance minister has not responded too.

“The questions have to do with his influence. The questions have to do with what those meetings were about, the contents of them, whether the Gupta family spoke to him about deals related to the PIC,” Ndlozi said.

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Ndlozi added that the EFF’s sources that gave the party damning information on Nene are highly placed in Ramaphosa’s cabinet, state institutions, as well as the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC).

“Some of these individuals, particularly those who have given concrete evidence to us, face serious power dynamics, including their lives, to be honest, so we have to be sensitive about the ways in which we handle that information,” Ndlozi said.

Furthermore, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said he would today submit written parliamentary questions to all 35 ministers in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet asking them whether they have met with any member, employee, and/or close associate of the Gupta family and/or attended any meeting with these persons at the Gupta’s Saxonwold Estate in Johannesburg – or anywhere else – since taking office.

“Moreover, whether they have any professional relationship with the above mentioned, and if so, what are the details of such.”

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