Van Rooyen‚ who was constantly taunted as a "weekend special" and "Zuma's last born" by Mokwele and other EFF MPs‚ insisted that the Guptas had nothing to with his appointment to cabinet..
"It's the president that appoints ministers‚" he said.
Van Rooyen was joined in the NCOP by his public service and administration counterpart Faith Muthambi‚ who was mocked by Mokwele for showing up in Parliament's second chamber while she had been failing to attend oversight committee meetings in the National Assembly.
Muthambi denied allegations that she had stripped some of her department's senior officials of their administrative powers‚ including director-general Mashwahle Diphofa.