Zuma accompanied me out the Gupta house: Mentor

17 March 2016 - 11:15 By TMG Digital

Undaunted by the threat of legal action against her‚ but mindful of her physical safety‚ Vytjie Mentor bolstered her allegations of being courted by the Gupta family for a ministerial post with a description of their homestead on Thursday.Mentor‚ a former African National Congress (ANC) MP‚ on Facebook reiterated that President Jacob Zuma “was in that Gupta house with me on that day” she got offered the job of public enterprises minister.“He came in after I rejected the offer‚” she wrote‚ then accompanied me down the 4/5/6 marble (covered) wide stairs at the entrance of the Gupta house to their black twin-cab with heavily black-tainted windows which taking me back to the airport”.“I was on cru[t]ches‚” she recalled.“It was about 5-7 days or so before Barbara Hogan was reshuffled as a Minister of Public Enterprises. The rest I will reveal at the right time.”Hogan on Thursday became the latest senior ANC official to tell how she experienced pressure to favour the Guptas.Speaking to John Robbie on Radio 702‚ she said: "I cannot tell you how much pressure I was put under to meet with Jet Airways."Jet Airways is a Gupta linked company. It was the airline which landed the Gupta's wedding guests at Waterkloof airport causing a massive controversy. Earlier on Thursday‚ Mentor said she was unbowed by legal threats against her for the allegations she has made: “The Guptas must go ahead with their threats. I look forward to meeting them in court. I do have a trump card!!! I can corroborate my claim. Legal threats dont scare me. I have no money like they do. I have only the TRUTH as my valuable possession. I am a David‚ they are a Goliath. But you know what? EVERY GOLIATH HAS THEIR OWN DAVID. I am ready‚ very ready. SO HELP ME GOD!”For her immediate protection‚ however‚ Mentor looked to the premier of the Western Cape‚ where she resides: “Hellen Zille's police will have to protect my house and my family.” On Wednesday night‚ Mentor had cause to celebrate when deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas confirmed that the Guptas had offered him a full ministerial job.“Viva cde. Mcebisi Jonas! The truth shall set us free!”‚ Vytjie Mentor‚ a former African National Congress caucus chairperson and party MP‚ shared on Facebook.Jonas‚ in a statement as well as an interview at the SABC studios in Auckland Park‚ confirmed the Guptas had met with him on November 27 and offered him former minister Nhlanhla Nene’s job.“Members of the Gupta family offered me the position of Minister of Finance to replace then-Minister Nene. I rejected this out of hand. The basis of my rejection of their offer is that it makes a mockery of our hard-earned democracy‚ the trust of our people and no one apart from the President of the Republic appoints ministers‚” he said.Nene was removed as minister by Zuma on December 9‚ prompting unprecedented market ructions that saw the rand breach the R16 to the dollar mark.Mentor said she was offered a job as minister of public enterprises by the Gupta family on the condition that she dropped the South African Airways flight route to India to give it to them. “I refused and so was never made a minister‚” she said. “The president was in another room when they offered this to me (at the Gupta home) in Saxonwold (Johannesburg)‚” she said.The offer was allegedly made after Hogan was removed as minister of public enterprises‚ when Mentor was the chairperson of the public enterprises portfolio committee.In response the Presidency issued a statement on Tuesday evening saying: “President Jacob Zuma has no recollection of Ms Mentor. He is therefore unable to comment on any alleged incident in her career.”Mentor hit back on Wednesday morning‚ saying that she had known Zuma since his return from exile and spelled out their shared working history.“I chaired the ANC National Parliamentary Caucus when President Zuma was a Deputy President. He sat next to me and spoke through me and with me in Caucus each Thursday when Parliament was in session.“I sat with him in the ANC’s Political Committee each month too. He is the one who was sent by the Top 6 then to tell me that the ANC has deployed me to be the Chair of Caucus then.“He is the one who introduced me to the ANC Caucus then as a new Chair of Caucus. I had a bi-monthly with him in his Tuynhuys Offices then.“He knew me right from when he arrived from exile. He met me frequently on the ground in the Northern Cape on many occasions.“I know President (Thabo) Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe will never ever say they have no recollection of me.”She then issued a challenge to the Gupta family‚ stating: “As for the Guptas. I am not done yet‚ a lot still need to be told... will leave this here for now.”..

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