The African National Congress (ANC) says it will not judge former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene on whether he lied about his meetings with the Guptas until the party has engaged in a discussion with him.
ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte was responding to journalists’ questions in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Nene publicly apologised about his meetings with the Guptas after initially denying meeting them.
Nene’s apology came after his testimony at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in Parktown, Johannesburg, last week.
“We haven’t talked to comrade Nene and so at the moment we think until we have an opportunity as the ANC to have a discussion with him, we don’t want to be judging him. The conclusion that is made is that he didn’t divulge how many times he went to meet with the Guptas. I think it’s more important to know what he discussed there, even if he went there once. So this counting of times is quite irrelevant frankly. It’s more the content of people saying well I went there to discuss one-two-three-four times,- that’s much more important than the number of times that the person might have gone there where ever they went or how many times they saw people,” says Duarte.
