Vytjie Mentor expected to turn screws on Zuma

Outspoken former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor is today expected to lay bare claims of how the politically connected Gupta family attempted to offer her a cabinet position eight years ago in the presence of then president Jacob Zuma. Today is the fourth day of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

While David Lewis of Corruption Watch does not foresee Mentor’s allegations differing much from those of former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas –who testified on Friday and alleged to having been offered a senior cabinet post by the Guptas, which he declined – former ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza says Mentor is “the only one who puts Zuma right in the crime scene.”

Khoza, an academic, is now executive director with the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse. She said: “The fact that she [Mentor] spoke with Zuma puts him right in the Gupta Saxonwold compound when she claims he was present the day they offered her a cabinet post.

“This links Zuma directly and physically in the scene with her allegations,” said Khoza, who will be attending the inquiry “to lend my support to Vytjie”.

Zuma’s alleged presence at the Gupta Johannesburg home when the Cabinet offer was made to Mentor “will certainly make her testimony unique”.

The offer followed the sacking of Barbara Hogan as minister of public enterprises, with Mentor alleging the Guptas’ had an interest in her dropping the SA Airways flight route to India and having her give it to them instead.

Amid the support the inquiry is receiving from individuals and organisations including the SA Communist Party (SACP), the commission head, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, has reiterated that his team will spare no holy cows.

“We appreciate the support expressed in the memorandum delivered by the SACP to us,” said Justice Zondo.

“I have said this commission will do its job – investigations must leave no stone unturned. If evidence points at you, you must be followed.

“If you have a track record of integrity, you are not going to do dodgy things.

“No attempt should be tried to implicate someone who wasn’t involved,” he said in his closing remarks on Friday. Leading today’s evidence is senior counsel advocate Mahlape Sello.

– brians@citizen.co.za