The President’s office has told the State Capture Commission’s legal team that President Cyril Ramaphosa will wait until after Brian Molefe has completed his testimony before responding to allegations levelled against him.
During his testimony in January and again on Tuesday, Molefe accused Ramaphosa of using his political power to assist mining multi-national Glencore and claimed that Ramaphosa was providing political protection to Optimum coal mine because he was a shareholder when he was Deputy President of the ANC.
Molefe also suggested that his allegations against Ramaphosa were being swept under the carpet during evidence leader advocate Pule Godwin Seleka’s recap of his evidence.
Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe’s opening statement at the State Capture Commission
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Zondo explains Commission rules with regards to implicated persons
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said that Ramaphosa was not compelled to respond to the allegation at this stage. He also confirmed that the 14 day period offered to implicated persons to respond following the delivery of the rule 3.3 notice has lapsed without a response from the President.
He, however, explained the rules of the Commission once someone has been implicated in witness testimony, saying that the Commission’s evidence leader Advocate Pule Godwin Seleka indicated that Ramaphosa had already received a rule 3.3 notice informing him of possible implication in the evidence presented at the Commission.
Zondo said: “The time you’re obliged to file is when you’ve received a 10.6 regulation from the Chairperson, but under rule 3.3 – it’s up to you if you want to respond but the Commission may decide that Ben if you didn’t want to respond it wants an affidavit from you, in that case it can ask you to provide an affidavit and if you cooperate and respond and provide it, then no 10.6 directive needs to be issued.”
Molefe told the Commission that he had no knowledge of plans by former President Jacob Zuma to appoint him as Finance Minister in 2015. He says he did not need help from the Guptas or anyone else with his career.
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Zondo: “If the evidence on the affidavit by Dr Zweli Mkhize, Ms Jesse Duarte, and Mr Mantashe is true, we then know that Mr Zuma wanted to replace Mr Gordhan with you as Finance Minister, so I’m just saying there are these things and it’s only fair that you get a chance to say what you can say.”
Molefe: “I don’t want to comment, all of the things that you’ve mentioned, I don’t feature anywhere. I never said anything.”
Molefe says he could not have influenced a decision that saw Gupta-owned company Tegeta receive a R1.6 billion pre-payment for the supply of coal to Eskom’s Hendrina power station.
“I underwent a procedure for my shoulder and during that procedure there was a problem, my lungs were flooded with water, and they had to induce a coma for about 30 hours and subsequent to that I was not at work for the whole of December. I was not part of the negotiations for this contract,” says Molefe.
Commission hears Eskom related evidence: Brian Molefe
The Commission will continue to hear Eskom-related evidence from the Former Chief Executive Officer of Trillian Management Consulting, Bianca Goodson on Thursday morning.
The Commission will also hear Denel-related evidence from the former Denel Board Chairperson Daniel Mantsha.
