Editorial

Going after the man who cracked Zuma's state capture wide open

22 July 2018 - 00:00 By Sunday Times

A little over two years ago, on March 20 2016, South Africans woke up to bombshell claims from a former government spin doctor, Themba Maseko, in which he implicated former president Jacob Zuma directly in state capture.
Maseko, a former CEO of the Government Communications and Information System, told this newspaper that Zuma had personally called him to ensure that he met the Gupta brothers at their compound in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, and instructed him to give government contracts to companies owned by the family.
Maseko's claims came a few days after former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas confirmed reports in this newspaper that the Guptas offered him the position of finance minister. In a meeting attended by Zuma's son Duduzane and controversial businessman Fana Hlongwana at the Gupta compound, said Jonas, the Gupta brothers had offered him a black refuse bag containing R600,000 in cash and an additional R600-million if he agreed to "work with us". Jonas refused the offer.
This allegation is now before court, where Duduzane is charged with corruption for allegedly offering unauthorised gratification to a public figure. He is out on R100,000 bail.
While the Jonas allegation brought the state-capture project into the open for the first time, it was Maseko's claim that Zuma had instructed him to give state contracts to the politically connected family that could sink the former president. Maseko is, so far, the only witness to have linked Zuma directly to plans by the Gupta family to loot billions of rands from state coffers.
He remains the only ANC member brave enough to have heeded a call from the party's then secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, for any member with any knowledge of the "corporate capture of the state" to make a written submission to his office. Jonas did not. Nor did any of those who now claim to have stood up to the Gupta brothers and to have fought their attempts to capture the state.In that interview in March 2016, Maseko told how in late 2010 he received several requests from the Guptas to meet. While on his way to one such meeting at the family's Saxonwold home, he received an unexpected call from Zuma's office.
"As I am driving out of the GCIS building [in Pretoria], I got a call from a PA, Mahlamba Ndlopfu, saying: 'Ubaba ufuna ukukhuluma nawe' [The president wants to talk to you]. He came on the line. He greeted me [and] said: 'Kuna labafana bakwaGupta badinga uncedo lwakho. Ngicela ubancede' [The Gupta brothers need your help. Please help them]," Maseko said.
This could spell doom for Zuma, who is expected back in court this week to answer to 16 charges relating to 783 payments that he allegedly received in connection with the multibillion-rand arms deal. Maseko was fired after refusing to follow orders to allocate the state's entire advertising budget to the Guptas' now-defunct newspaper, The New Age, and their TV station, ANN7. He was later replaced by Mzwanele Manyi, who became one of Zuma's many praise singers and went on to own both the paper and TV station.
That is why we are deeply troubled to learn that Maseko is now the subject of an investigation by the Hawks for an IT contract awarded 13 years ago when he was still the director-general in the Department of Public Works.The Hawks have asked Maseko to answer questions about a contract the department entered into with the State Information and Technology Agency to manage its internal IT systems. The department had no direct link with the service provider who was appointed by the agency, but the Hawks claim the company was paid before any work was done.
Those familiar with the matter said the contract was investigated by the auditor-general and no evidence of wrongdoing was found at the time.
We can only hope that the decision to rehash these allegations as Maseko prepares to testify before the imminent state capture inquiry hearings is a coincidence...

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