The office of the Public Protector has sought to describe the reasons behind its finding that former Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba did not abuse his powers by granting the Gupta family early naturalisation in 2015.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has, however, found that Gigaba breached Parliament’s Executive Ethics Code in the naturalisation of members of the family.
Mkhwebane has recommended that the Home Affairs Director-General take action against officials who were involved in the naturalisation of the family, for their failure to exercise due diligence.
The Public Protector’s spokesperson Oupa Segalwe says, “Him [Malusi Gigaba] arriving at the conclusion that there were exceptional circumstances he relied on a motivation prepared by a team of senior officials from his department.”
“When it comes to the requirements in terms of the law to table in Parliament, the names of everyone who would have been granted naturalisation on the basis of exceptional circumstances, the Public Protector found that the Minister failed to table those names during the opening of Parliament that year and that he misled the public when he addressed the press conference at which he was trying to explain this whole fiasco.”
In the video below from three years ago, Gigaba said the Gupta naturalisation documents were released to tarnish his name
