Guptas to take ‘appropriate steps’ against Grootes for saying Ajay ‘lied’

The Gupta family have denied that Ajay “lied” in an interview with journalist Stephen Grootes.

“The rights of Ajay Gupta are reserved and appropriate steps will be taken against Grootes in the appropriate forum‚” the family said in a statement.

“Grootes is also invited to substantiate his false‚ defamatory claim.”

This follows an opinion piece written by Grootes earlier this week‚ in which he alleged that Ajay Gupta “lied several times” in an interview he conducted nine months ago.

Details of the interview‚ arranged through the Guptas’ UK-based PR firm Bell Pottinger‚ have just come to light after a truncated version of the interview emerged at the weekend.

Grootes said he never had the opportunity to broadcast the interview and was sorely disappointed when was not allowed to talk about it.

The leaking of the interview on YouTube has allowed Grootes to finally speak out about it.

In an article headlined “The interview I couldn’t publish until now”‚ Grootes‚ describing the interview‚ wrote: “This was a tough interview‚ I threw everything I had at him. Some of his answers seem to have been blatant lies‚ particularly his claims around [Des] Van Rooyen and [Mosebenzi] Zwane. Of course‚ we didn't have the state capture report then.”

Van Rooyen is the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs and Zwane is the ministers of mineral resources – both featured prominently in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report.

– TMG Digital/BusinessLIVE