RANJENI MUNUSAMY: Vytjie Mentor’s flaky testimony cannot derail vital work of state capture inquiry
Extract
Considering the politics of the time and former president Jacob Zuma’s grip on the ANC, it is understandable why Mentor did not immediately reveal the alleged Gupta offer to her in 2010.
But the way she went about telling her story was unorthodox and frankly bizarre.
Vytjie Mentor first revealed that the Guptas had offered to make her a minister on her Facebook page in March 2016, while on holiday in Thailand. “But they [have] previously asked me to become Minister of Public Enterprises when Barbara Hogan got the chop, provided that I would drop the SAA flight-route to India and give it to them. I refused and so I was never made a Minister. The President was in another room when they offered me this in Saxonwold,” she wrote. This casually written post from an exotic location in response to social media chatter about the Guptas is hardly the appropriate way to make a serious accusation against the president and his powerful friends. Then again, as COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota demonstrated this week, neither is venting long-harboured resentments from the podium at parliament, especially when you are not too certain of your facts. Considering the politics of the time and former president Jacob Zuma’s grip on the ANC, it is understandable why Mentor d...
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