People are being paid to run a smear campaign against me, Gigaba claims
Finance minister Malusi Gigaba says reports that he irregularly granted the Guptas naturalised citizenship are part of a "campaign to tarnish my name and de-focus me from my work". Gigaba and his deputy‚ Sifiso Buthelezi‚ hit out at allegations made against them in recent days, during a media conference on Thursday‚ which was supposed to be dominated by plans to turn around the country’s ailing economy. It emerged this week that Gigaba had signed off the Gupta family’s request for permanent South African citizenship after it had earlier been declined by officials, during Gigaba’s previous job as home affairs minister in 2015. Gigaba, however, said he granted the citizenship on "technical" grounds after an appeal was directed to him as home affairs minister. He said officials at home affairs reviewed their original decision based on the emergence of new information, following the appeal to him by the Guptas. This week, former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor also said Gigaba was not South Africa...
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