‘Who are they to offer you the job?’

“Who are they to offer you the job of minister?”

These were the words finance minister Nhlanhla Nene uttered when his former deputy Mcebisi Jonas told him that the Guptas had offered to hand him Nene’s job.

Testifying before the Zondo commission on Wednesday, Nene confirmed Jonas’s evidence in August that he had informed him of the bribe offer in October 2015, about two months before Nene was axed in a cabinet reshuffle. He was returned to the finance portfolio by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year. 

Nene said he met with Jonas on Monday October 26 on a balcony at the National Treasury.

“I could see that Mr Jonas was flustered. He informed me of an uncomfortable meeting he had with Mr Ajay Gupta, Mr Fana Hlongwane and Mr Duduzane Zuma in Saxonwold.  He told me that during that meeting, he was offered the position I was holding at the time, that of minister of finance,” Nene said in his statement.

قالب وردپرس