Inside the Gupta interview they didn’t want you to see
A 23 minute cut of an EWN interview with Ajay Gupta has been released online, after the Gupta family’s PR representatives, Bell Pottinger, kept it hidden from the public since February 2016.
According to EWN’s Stephen Grootes, the news group was unable to release the video or discuss it due to a non-disclosure agreement with Bell Pottinger, fearing backlash from the notoriously litigious Gupta family.
Now that the video has leaked, EWN is free to discuss the circumstances surrounding the video – including the blatant lies contained therein.
Grootes said that the interview was conducted in February 2016, and was over an hour long. As part of the agreement to do the interview, Bell Pottinger requested that it be able to keep the footage and give it a ‘light edit’.
What resulted was the PR firm keeping the footage completely, cutting off contact with EWN – and stealing Grootes’ equipment in the process.
A 23 minute cut of the interview has now leaked online through YouTube, and can be viewed below.
The interview itself has damning quotes – notably blatant lies from Ajay Gupta, saying he had never met four-day finance minister Des van Rooyen, when evidence contained in the Public Protector’s report into state capture showed (months later) that van Rooyen had been at the Gupta residence every day for a week prior to his appointment.
Gupta also contradicted the spokesperson for mining minister Mosebenzi Zwane, who confirmed that the minister had accompanied the family to Switzerland to assist with the Glencore deal.
These are the main takeaways from the interview:
On his relationship with president Jacob Zuma:
“From the family’s side, our relationship with president Zuma is simple – like all of the business community, or business people have with any president. What you call the “friendship” we have had with other presidents also. So I don’t feel any difference in the relationship we have (with Zuma) now.”
On Zuma doing favours for the Guptas:
“Having a relationship isn’t the issue – its whether he (Zuma) does something for us that’s important to everyone. I can say categorically that we have never asked – so why would he do anything for us? You can not find a person who says that we have asked him to ‘do this thing’ for us.”
On Gwede Mantashe’s comments on corporate interests capturing the state:
“Why are you asking if it is us? All corporate entities have a relationship with the state – we are very small, we’ve said many times that we are not even 1% of the stock exchange in this country. How can you presume that he (Mantashe) is attacking the family? He has never taken our name (in his statements).”
On knowing minister Des van Rooyen:
“It’s not important if I know him. Let me say, categorically, that I have not met him before he became a minister. One of my colleagues reminded me that I saw him at one of the parties or something – but we never met him, we’d never seen him.
On (mining minister) Mosebenzi Zwane flying to Switzerland with the family:
“That’s absolutely rubbish. [After being told that Zwane’s spokesperson has confirmed it] It’s absolutely rubbish. He did not fly with any Gupta family member, anywhere. Not with any member of the family, not with any of our companies. If his spokesperson is confirming that he flew with us, then he is lying.”
On using influence to allow wedding guests to land at Waterkloof Airbase:
“All procedures were followed at that time – no aircraft can land without permission to do so. They cannot even enter into that airspace without permission. So all procedures were followed at that time. It had nothing to do with the president.”
On the department of mineral resources putting pressure on Glencore, so that Gupta companies could buy Optimum Coal at the right price:
“You are asking the wrong person. You must ask the department to reply on this, if it is them who are doing what you say. We have nothing to do with this.”
On Duduzane Zuma:
“He’s an active member of this business – not a politician. We’re all talking that he’s the son of president Zuma, but from day one this boy has been working 16 to 17 hours a day. He himself goes to all the mines, to all places. He doesn’t sit in an air-conditioned room and ‘count the money’. He works very hard to earn his positions.”
On Zuma adding to the Guptas’ business success:
“Do you want the real answer? We would probably be more successful if he (Duduzane) was not involved. We might be doing much better. We would not have been targeted because of these reasons which don’t exist. We are not getting a benefits – we are in fact in a really tough environment.”
On Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma being the next president:
“We are not politicians, we are businessmen. We will support whoever is the next president as long as they support business. I am happy to look at whoever is elected, we have nothing to do with who is elected.”
Read: 13 damning findings in the Public Protector’s state capture report
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