We did nothing wrong – Mantashe defends ANC over Gupta accounts

The ANC intervened with banks about the Gupta family accounts because it was worried about jobs and the possibility that the banks had been captured by “white monopoly capital”, says the party’s national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe.

Giving evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Mantashe said he was “directed” by the ANC’s “top six” officials, led by then president Jacob Zuma, to meet Standard, Nedbank, FNB and Absa over the closure of the Gupta accounts. There had earlier been a meeting with executives from the Gupta-owned Oakbay Group of companies, who “wanted to convince us about the effects of the closure of their accounts and difficulty in getting a mining licence”.

“They wanted us to help them reopen their accounts and thought we would be part of the campaign.

“We did a lot of listening as we could not deal with the matter from one angle to arrive at a decision.

“We were told 7 500 job losses would arise due to the closures of the accounts and failure to pay employee salaries.”

Subsequent ANC national working committee (NWC) and national executive committee (NEC) meetings, said Mantashe, “were of the view that the banks were in collusion to close black-owned businesses and that government and the banking regulator had to intervene”.

Ultimately, the ANC realised it would be illegal to intervene in the Gupta saga with the banks.

Mantashe admitted that 2016 became the most difficult in his tenure at the Luthuli House party headquarters. He said eight high-ranking government officials who served in state security, communications and finance – among others – had approached him to lay bare their views and experiences on state capture through submissions.

“We listened to many people affected by state capture – some of whom have already testified before this commission.

“Some were telling us that they were forced to work with the Gupta family and failure to comply was career limiting.

“The NEC took a decision that they should rather take the allegations to independent institutions like the public protector, the SA Council of Churches and later this commission of inquiry.

“As the ANC, we did not want to compromise ourselves, appear to be investigating ourselves and being accused of covering up.

“We realised that we could not assume the responsibility of being police and a court of law,” explained Mantashe.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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