Twitter pounces on ‘leak’ that Nene has dirty laundry being investigated

Social media on Sunday was buzzing over allegations that Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene is the target of an investigative report by amaBhungane, and that he may even be connected to deals involving the controversial Gupta family.

He is expected to testify soon before the commission of inquiry into state capture, providing details around his axing as finance minister in December 2015, a decision that saw then president Jacob Zuma heavily criticised and which sent the rand into free fall.

The Sunday Times has reported that Nene is expected to confirm that he believes he was fired for opposing the nuclear build deal with Russia. Treasury had also refused to issue a guarantee for PetroSA in an Engen-Malaysia deal – another project that Zuma was reportedly placing huge pressure on Nene to approve.

After he was fired Nene was supposedly meant to head up the Brics New Development Bank – according to Zuma – which never materialised. Nene joined the private business sector for a while, before returning as finance minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet following Zuma’s recall by the ANC.

However, Nene’s own background and credibility may soon become an area of focus if intriguing information about his time as chairperson of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) turns out to have any basis to it.

According to a poorly written few sentences initially attributed to being a leak from an amaBhungane investigation – which amaBhungane says they did not leak – questions have now been raised about an oil company linked to a family member of Nene’s that was allegedly funded by the PIC while Nene was still the finance deputy minister and chair of the PIC.

The information supposedly links two individuals who are “both Zimbabwean friends of Nhlanhla Nene and were funded by [the] PIC for an IPP [independent power producers] project approved by Nene”, with one of the men now sitting on the Eskom board.

The note goes on to say that Nene was “not only linked to the Guptas but [was] instrumental in funding many of their business deals” and that “some money” supposedly found its way through Swiss accounts and into his wife’s account.

Just to make the whole thing even juicier the “leak” suggests that Nene may even want to resign.

While it’s important to note that none of this has remotely been proven as yet, that hasn’t stopped a few public figures from jumping on the information.

EFF leader Julius Malema wasted no time to jump into the fray, tweeting on Sunday that he had already “warned about” Nene, and the “mob” had attacked him for it.

We warned about Nhlanhla Nene, and the mob attacked us.

— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) September 30, 2018

Malema had made allegations in July that Nene was “corrupt as hell”, claiming: “I’ve got a scandal that they’ve got on him that involves his daughter which they gave to him and they never reported it. They’ve got control over him through that scandal. But they gave us the questions, Pravin [Gordhan]’s group, including the letter that he wrote to the PIC asking for certain people to get the money. We’ve got the letter. He’s not answered because he knows what we have. We’ve asked him questions in parliament, in public but he’s not answered till today. The most overpraised and celebrated minister.”

AmaBhungane’s Sam Sole then took to Twitter to neither confirm nor deny that any of the allegations might be true, saying only that amaBhungane had not leaked any of the allegations about Nene, but he was not willing to comment further.

This was not enough to put an end to the speculation.

We did not 'leak' this. We are not going to comment further.

— Sam Sole (@SamSoleZA) September 30, 2018

*WE DID NOT( LEAK)THIS*That means theres element of truth in the story,wow,scary stuff!FINANCE MINISTER NEED TO RESIGN ASAP & face subsequent prosecution from law enforcement agencies!

— Austi Man (@AustiMan1) September 30, 2018

The United Democratic Movement’s Bantu Holomisa also stuck the boot into Nene.

He must start packing his bags. President must look for a replacement..

— Bantu Holomisa (@BantuHolomisa) September 30, 2018

Black First Land First’s Andile Mngxitama said that Malema, whom he referred to as a “chap”, had once defended Nene against Zuma, and that supposedly disqualified him from criticising Nene now.

https://twitter.com/Mngxitama/status/1046357199726022656

Mngxitama retweeted a statement from as recently as February in which the EFF described Nene’s reappointment as “a reaffirmation of confidence in black and African leadership”.

Nevertheless, we welcome changes in finance; the appointment of Nhlanhla Nene is a reaffirmation of confidence in black and African leadership. #CabinetReshuffle

— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) February 26, 2018

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