Former Public Enterprises Minister, Malusi Gigaba, has denied that during his tenure he had an “informal way” of appointing board members for state-owned entities.
The State Capture Commission earlier heard evidence from Siyabonga Mahlangu that Gigaba would randomly appoint board members and give directions to entities such as Eskom and Transnet on how work should be done.
He says when he arrived at the Department of Public Enterprises in 2010, he made sure that board assessment were regularised to avoid that people serve on a board for more than six years.
“There were instances where board members would have served for periods of seven years and more. The decision taken during my tenure, officially, was that no member of the board would serve at most for longer than two terms of three years each,” Gigaba says.
“So we regularised that each board member would serve for two terms,” he said.
The former Public Enterprises Minister also told the inquiry that he had “a social and cultural” relationship with the Gupta family when he was in Cabinet. He said he knew the Guptas and had been to their Saxonwold compound in Johannesburg. He said he had attended social and cultural gatherings and denied that there was a “business relationship” with the family.
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