Ajay Gupta under oath: Mcebisi Jonas is a liar
Ajay Gupta has sworn under oath that he has never met with deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as the politician claimed in his explosive state capture revelations in 2016.
In an affidavit submitted to the court on Friday (10 February), the oldest Gupta brother denied ever meeting Jonas, and said that the “incident” described by the deputy was simply made up “to support the wave of adverse media attention” against the family, and to achieve “political advantage”.
The affidavit came after acting CEO of Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments, Ronica Ragavan, asked the court to condone a supplementary answering affidavit to finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s last answering affidavit in the ongoing court case between the two parties.
The court case was initiated by Gordhan seeking a ruling that says he cannot interfere with South Africa’s major banks’ decisions to shut Gupta-owned accounts. The Guptas were seeking executive intervention from government, but ultimately agreed that Gordhan did not have to get involved.
As part of his reasoning, Gordhan submitted to the courts a statement saying that he, as head of the National Treasury, could not be called to assist when the matter involved influential persons having reportedly conspired to influence government.
This was in reference to the allegations from deputy finance minister Jonas, around a meeting with the Gupta family, where he was allegedly offered the role of finance minister on condition he work with the family in securing business with government.
It was this part of Gordhan’s affidavit that Ajay Gupta wanted to address.
Read: Gordhan rips into Gupta conspiracy claims
“I have never met Jonas”
“Let me commence this portion of my affidavit to clearly and unambiguously state under oath that I have never met Mr Mcebisi Jonas, not as alleged, or at all,” Ajay Gupta said in his affidavit.
“The fact of the matter is that Mr Jonas is, with respect, blatantly dishonest when he suggests that he met with me or that I attended a meeting with him.”
“I have challenged Mr Jonas, and I do so again, to prove that he met with me as alleged,” he said.
Referring to the state capture report compiled by the office of the Public Protector, Gupta said that all evidence provided by Jonas in relation to the meeting was factually inconsistent, contradictory and flawed, and accused the Public Protector of refusing to investigate the truth.
Gupta argued that both finance minister Gordhan and deputy minister Jonas broke the law, as section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act obliges any person in authority to report knowledge of a crime, even if only a suspicion.
“If there was any truth to these allegations…the so called Nene Gate scandal and its adverse consequences could have been prevented by them. Why did they do nothing if they knew about this upcoming scandal and the corrupt core behind it,” Gupta questioned.
Read: ‘Flawed, abusive political conspiracy’ – why the Guptas think Gordhan’s court bid should be dropped
Zuma’s son has his say
As part of his affidavit, Gupta secured a confirmatory affidavit from president Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane – who has also been implicated in the saga – stating that Gupta was not present in any meeting held with Jonas.
Notably, the affidavit does not deny that a meeting with Jonas took place, in effect confirming Jonas’ account of events, with only the presence of Ajay Gupta now being contested.
In his own words, Zuma wrote that “Mr Ajay Kumar Gupta was not present at any time during the meeting with Mr Jonas held on 25 October (2015).”
Along with Duduzane Zuma, another implicated person, politically connected businessman Fana Hlongwane also submitted a confirmatory affidavit saying that Ajay Gupta was not at their meeting with Jonas.
Phone records published in the state capture report confirmed Jonas’s version of events – that he never communicated with Duduzane before October 2015 and that he met the president’s son at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosebank and that Duduzane later transported him to Saxonwold.
However, the records did not place Jonas at the same location as Duduzane and Hlongwane in Saxonwold.
Read: 13 damning findings in the Public Protector’s state capture report
Loading ...