Introducing more black participants into the water and sanitation industry is more important than questions about whether Gupta-linked companies have benefited from contracts from her department, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said on Friday. Replying to a question about whether any Gupta-linked companies had benefited from departmental contracts, the minister could say neither yes nor no. She insisted that she did not know what the definition of a "Gupta-linked company" was. "I am not obsessed by that," Mokonyane said at a media briefing ahead of her budget vote speech in the National Assembly. "What I am obsessed with is these companies that have been in the water sector for a period of more than 20 years, and even dating back to post the [Second] World War." It was problematic that major white-owned companies such as Group Five continued to benefit from contracts related, for example, to the construction of dams and other water projects. The cost of the Hazelmere...
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