'Don't know, cannot recall': Dudu Myeni's son to Zondo commission

His company was paid R2m but he barely remembers anything.

This was the testimony of Dudu Myeni's son, Thalente Myeni, at the state capture inquiry  on Monday.

Thalente, despite the payment to his company, Premier Attraction, from VNA, claimed he could not recall whether there was a written or verbal agreement. He was grilled by commission evidence leader advocate Kate Hofmeyr.

"There has to be a reason for a payment. I do not just receive payments," said Thalente.

Hofmeyr asked: "Is that the basis for receiving the R2m from VNA?"

Thalente replied: "What do you mean?"

"The evidence you have just given," Hofmeyr responded.

"I am not saying it is a verbal agreement because I cannot recall. But I am saying there would have been an agreement of sorts, whether verbal or written," Thalente said.

Barely a minute later, Thalente could again "not recall" whether there was an agreement, written or verbal.

The R2m payment, he said, was for work he did for VNA for a housing development project in Mpumalanga in 2015.

His company did consulting services.

VNA claimed Thalente's company subcontracted other companies and provided them with those reports, but he got the payment for having done no work.

"I am sure if you ask those companies, they do not even know me," he said.

His memory would fail him again when pressed on the number of occasions he met VNA about the housing project. "We met many times but I cannot recall how many times," he said.

Thalente could also not recall the number of employees his company had at any given time since its formation in 2007.

He finished giving his evidence at lunch time on Monday.