Mandela, Mbeki and the Guptas

On 11 April 2016, Thabo Mbeki distanced himself from the Gupta family‚ whose friendship with current president Jacob Zuma is under investigation following assertions by senior politicians that they tried to influence Cabinet Minister appointments.

He also lashed out at people who lied to cover their own actions.   Thabo Mbeki’s full letter on Zuma, Nkandla and the Constitutional Court.    Despite not wanting to engage in “gutter” politics‚ Mbeki said he was forced to speak out after inferences made in public following discussions between the Ex-Political Prisoners Association and President Zuma last week.

He stated he had not introduced any of the Guptas to Zuma‚ nor did he appoint a member of the family to serve as an economic adviser.

A statement‚ issued by The Thabo Mbeki Foundation‚ read:

“In the last three weeks‚ we have noted news reports attributable to various persons claiming some link between former President Thabo Mbeki and the Gupta family”.

“We have agonised about this matter‚ avoiding to respond and thus descend to the lower depths to which the allegation desperately attaches.

“Our honest and sustained attempt to avoid the gutter were nonetheless severely tested and strained” by remarks broadcast on television on Sunday by Mpho Masemola‚ a representative of the Ex-Political Prisoners Association.

“Mr Masemola takes the public into confidence about discussions between the Ex-Political Prisoners Association and President Jacob Zuma.    He deploys innuendo in order to socialise accountability for an individual’s ethical judgement.

“For the record‚ President Thabo Mbeki did not at any point introduce the Gupta family to President Zuma. “Even if it were true that President Mbeki had introduced the Gupta family to President Zuma‚ unless it is alleged and proven that he did so with an improper motive‚ he would not be held responsible for whatever may or may not have transpired thereafter between President Zuma and the Gupta family.

For Mr. Masemola to suggest otherwise is in fact to accuse President Zuma of lacking the capacity to make his own ethical judgements.” The foundation also rejected reports that a member of the Gupta family served as an economic advisor to then-president Mbeki.

“This too is false! No member of the Gupta family ever served in any economic advisory body during the time when President Mbeki served as Head of State.”

Ajay Gupta did‚ however‚ serve on the International Marketing Council board (now Brand SA)‚ on the recommendation of a Mbeki ally – the then Minister in The Presidency‚ Essop Pahad.

Essop Pahad, Guptas sever business tiesMbeki’s foundation said Pahad had “rightly or wrongly thought that he (Ajay Gupta) had the skills‚ knowledge and capacity to facilitate the work of the Council – not because of his alleged proximity to the President”.   As the IMC board reported to Pahad‚ questions about this should be referred to him‚ the foundation said.Masemola told eNCA:

“The Gupta family has not come with Jacob Zuma.

The Gupta family was introduced to Jacob Zuma by Thabo Mbeki and Essop Pahad. Actually‚ we were shocked to hear that … those words coming from the President.

People are making noises now as if the President has been‚ you know‚ clinging to the Gupta family etc. It’s not like that.

Why Thabo Mbeki is keeping quiet? Why Essop Pahad is keeping quiet because we know that for the fact that the Gupta family is staying within‚ he’s staying in the same region with the Gupta family‚ Essop Pahad. In India. Yes.

We know that.”Lashing out against “falsehoods” about Mbeki’s tenure as president‚ the foundation referred to when Zuma and his allies had claimed a political conspiracy was behind attempts to investigate his role in the controversial arms deal.

“When he commented on the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment in the matter between the ‘National Director of Public Prosecutions v Zuma’ on January 13‚ 2009‚ President Mbeki made‚ among others‚ the following observations:

‘It seems to me that the unacceptable practice of propagation of deliberate falsehoods to attain various objectives is becoming entrenched in our country. I am pleased that the SCA has provided firm leadership in this regard by insisting that nobody’s integrity should be impugned on the basis of untested allegations’.”

“Three months ago‚ on January 10‚ President Mbeki began publishing a series of articles intended precisely to address various falsehoods that have been perpetuated over many years. And now once again enters Mr. Masemola!”

https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016-04-11-gupta-brothers-are-not-my-friends-mbeki/

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Over the years, Duduzane became an integral node in the Guptas’ empire, both as a shareholder in uranium and coal mines and a director in a string of other companies. One recent visitor to Rajesh Gupta’s office found Duduzane sprawled across the couch, playing on his phone.

In late 2010, Ajay Gupta called Themba  Maseko, asking if they could discuss the family’s entry into the media business. The Guptas were starting a newspaper, called the New Age, and a TV station.

In a formal sitting room in Saxonwold, Ajay explained to Maseko what kind of help he had in mind:

He wanted the government’s entire advertising budget to be devoted to the Guptas’ media holdings.

Maseko tried to explain that the request was inappropriate and, in any case, beyond his power—other officials and ministers could object. Ajay brushed off that concern, Maseko said. He left Saxonwold feeling queasy.

Soon Ajay called again. It was a Friday night, and Maseko was looking forward to a weekend out of town. Ajay asked to meet Maseko first thing Monday. Maseko refused.

Ajay, unaccustomed to that, declared that the meeting should happen instead on Saturday morning. “That’s when I told him to go f— himself,” Maseko says. “Who the hell is he? He’s not my boss. I don’t work for him.”

Two months after that exchange, Maseko’s boss called him into an urgent meeting. Instructions had come down from the president: Maseko was to be fired or reassigned immediately. He was shuffled to another department and resigned shortly afterward.

Around the same time, three senior intelligence chiefs, including the heads of South Africa’s equivalents of the CIA and FBI, were also removed with no public explanation. The ousted head of domestic intelligence later told the Mail & Guardian newspaper that his organization had been investigating whether the Guptas’ apparent control of so many senior government officials presented a national security threat. Big agency or small, the pattern was clear: Get in the family’s way, and your career could be cut short.

In early 2014 the state railway operator, Transnet SOC Ltd., was shopping for $4.7 billion worth of new locomotives.  Transnet decided to split the contract, handing half to two Chinese groups.

Leaked emails would later show that one of them had formed a partnership with a company associated with the Guptas. According to one person familiar with the details, Transnet also increased the price it would pay per locomotive by more than 40 percent. Transnet said in June that it is confident its procurement process has “sufficient checks and balances to guarantee integrity”; the Guptas said the deal “had nothing to do with” their family.

After the deal, the railway’s chief executive officer, Brian Molefe, was moved to another lucrative job: running Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the state utility that generates 95 percent of South African electricity.

With annual revenue of more than 150 billion rand, it’s one of Africa’s largest companies. As Molefe arrived, Eskom was in the middle of a dispute with Glencore Plc, the $71 billion global mining company. (Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg LP, is a senior independent non-executive director at Glencore.) Glencore owned an Eskom supplier, Optimum Coal Holdings Ltd., and wanted to improve the terms of its deal—rising costs, Glencore said, had made the arrangement unprofitable.

Eskom was sympathetic and was working on a compromise. But after Molefe took over as CEO, one of his first acts was to scuttle the negotiations and fine Optimum about 2 billion rand for delivering what Eskom said was bad coal.

 

Glencore prepared to place Optimum in bankruptcy protection.    During July 2015, it received a surprising letter from KPMG.

An unnamed client wanted to buy Optimum for a fraction of what Glencore had paid four years earlier. Glencore refused what it saw as an outrageously low price. It expected to eventually repair the rift with Eskom and restore the company to health.

Soon Tegeta, the Guptas’ mining company, stepped forward as the bidder. And events showed that the family was intimately involved with Eskom leadership, making sure no pact with Optimum was reached.

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/in-depth-a-timeline-of-how-the-guptas-bought-south-africa-11929842