Pravin joins the dots for Zondo; denies his daughter did business with state

By Nkululeko Ncana

(Bloomberg) – Former South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said there was a deliberate scheme to loot taxpayer funds during Jacob Zuma’s rule and accused the former president of helping facilitate it and lying to and misleading members of his cabinet.

Gordhan, who now oversees state companies, was testifying before a judicial panel that’s investigating claims that members of the Gupta family exploited their close relationship with Zuma to further their business interests – a process known as state capture. Zuma, who quit in February under pressure from the ruling African National Congress, and the Guptas deny wrongdoing.

Pravin Gordhan, Zapiro, State Capture Inquiry
Join the dots. More of Zapiro’s brilliant work available at www.zapiro.com.

Zuma sought to overturn a decision by banks to close the Guptas’ accounts, pushed for the country to buy new nuclear plants it couldn’t afford and ensured certain people were appointed as cabinet ministers and to senior positions at state companies, which enabled state capture to occur, Gordhan said.


Closing remarks by Minister Pravin Gordhan to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry

  • Witnesses appearing before the Commission, like myself, are quite willing to be attacked politically, quite willing to be criticised politically, quite willing to be corrected if we presented wrong evidence, but it would be very nice if our critics come forward under oath, and present themselves to this Commission.
  • What is unacceptable, are attacks on families.
  • This information about my daughter is submitted for the public to understand.
  • She joined Investec Bank Limited’s private equity division in 2007 and resigned in late 2017.
  • Most financial services institutions invest capital (their own- or third-party investor money) in emerging, privately-owned businesses.
  • The private equity division at Investec invested in privately held companies on behalf of Investec Bank Limited.
  • Investec, the Bank, was, therefore is the owner of the shares (not my daughter) of these private businesses.
  • She was an employee in this division and part of a team of 12 private equity professionals who were appointed as non-executive directors to the boards of these companies as a representative of Investec, the owner of the shares.
  • Private equity professionals from this team represented Investec on the boards of each company. It’s not her money. Their job is to look after the money of the bank and investors. This then helps smaller businesses to grow and create jobs.
  • She did not benefit financially in any way – i.e. she did not own any shares in these businesses directly – and did not benefit from any director fees or other financial compensation from these companies.
  • The benefits went to the bank and its investors.
  • She was not a member of the management or executive teams of these businesses.
  • None of the directorships my daughter held were in her personal capacity and were always on behalf of her employer.
  • The allegations of her, using the relationship with myself, to get access to government tenders to benefit these companies, is a blatant lie and these dangerous and unfounded allegations have been made to intimidate and harass my family and myself.
  • She does not have any bank accounts in Canada – and for the record nor do I – and has not had any financial interests in Canada.
  • My daughter has not done any business with the state.
  • Part of what is going on is the descent to racism that we are seeing in this country as a cheap political mechanism to launch attacks.

Investec statement regarding Anisha Gordhan

Anisha Gordhan was employed by Investec in its private equity business from 2007 until the business was incorporated into Investec Equity Partners (IEP) in January 2016. She was then an employee of IEP until she left in 2017. As an employee of the companies, she was appointed to the board of directors of various entities in which they had equity interests to manage and oversee the respective investments. Ms Gordhan was a non-executive director and not a direct shareholder in these entities, which gave her no direct remuneration or payment. Ms Gordhan received remuneration from her employers, in terms of her contract as an employee.

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