African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Ace Magashule has refuted claims that he took former Free State MEC Mxolisi Dukwana to the Guptas’ Saxonwold compound seven years ago to facilitate a multi-million-rand project.
Dukwana, who served in the Free State executive council between 1994 and 2012, insists that the provincial government was interacting with the politically-connected Gupta family during Magashule’s tenure as premier.
Dukwana says he will appear before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture to bring to the fore details of what he terms the ‘clandestine meetings’ members of the provincial government had with the Guptas.
Dukwana says Rajesh Gupta offered to give him R2 million to facilitate the project in the province.
In a statement, Magashule has labelled the allegations as ‘baseless lies’.
Dukwana says he first met the Guptas in 2009.
He says: “Way back late 2009, we went to Johannesburg and Ace invited me to go with him and we ended up at the Sahara offices. Just immediately, I saw him giving his ID document to Tony. In fact, he indicated there that he was going to go into business with the Guptas. That is when I started understanding their relationship. The details, I would like to give to the commission.”
