Finance minister Malusi Gigaba has released a statement confirming he waived certain requirements in the Gupta family’s application to become South African citizens.<\/p>\n
The EFF released documents on Monday showing that the Guptas were initially rejected in their bid to gain citizenship, having not lived in the country for the required amount of time.<\/p>\n
Gigaba, who was the minister of Home Affairs at the time, then waived the residency requirement and approved their application.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Gigaba confirmed that the documents were authentic, and said that there was nothing strange about the process at all.<\/p>\n
He said that it was a fairly common courtesy extended to prominent business people and sports stars, among others, and that it was well in-line with his powers as minister at the time.<\/p>\n
Gigaba said the media turned the news into a side-show, and portrayed the event sensationally and unfairly.<\/p>\n
“It is not true that minister Gigaba ‘opened the gates’ for the Gupta family; the Gupta family have been permanent residents in South Africa since 2008,” Gigaba’s spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“There is no ‘bombshell’ in relation to this matter, given everything was done within the prescripts of the law.”<\/p>\n
Gigaba said he has requested that Home Affairs make the motivations for the approval of the Gupta application available to the public.<\/p>\n
“We have no doubt the whole process has been handled by the book,” Gigaba said.<\/p>\n
Minister Gigaba is under extreme public scrutiny after his name popped up among many other officials in the so-called ‘gupta leaks’ – thousands of emails showing how the family has used its political influence over arms of the state.<\/p>\n
It is alleged that Gigaba, during his time as Public Enterprises minister, facilitated Gupta business partners and allies in taking over the boards of SOEs like Transnet and Eskom.<\/p>\n
The minister has denied any and all wrongdoing.<\/p>\n