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Fuzile: I was told Nene would be replaced with ‘Gupta minister’

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Standard Bank chief executive and former National Treasury director general Lungisa Fuzile. Picture: Mary-Ann Palmer
Standard Bank chief executive and former National Treasury director general Lungisa Fuzile. Picture: Mary-Ann Palmer

Standard Bank chief executive and former National Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile has accused the Gupta family of awarding government positions to their associates as well as appointing advisors for them.

“They [the Gupta brothers] offered former deputy minister Mcebisi Jonas the position of finance minister along with a huge sum of money” and then proceeded “to demand that he remove four senior officials from Treasury”.

These were the submissions made by Fuzile as he gave testimony before the commission of inquiry into state capture on Wednesday.

The officials that the Guptas wanted to get rid of in their quest to assume control of Treasury were Ismail Momoniat, Kenneth Brown, Andrew Donaldson and Fuzile himself.

Fuzile said he came about this information from then ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Enoch Godongwana who called him shortly after Nhlanhla Nene’s dismissal as finance minister on December 9 2015.

“Godongwana said Nene would be replaced by a ‘Gupta minister’ who would bring with him advisers who were be given to him by the Guptas,” said Fuzile.

He said Jonas had also confided in him that he had been offered the position of finance minister as well as “a huge sum of money” and he had been instructed “to remove four senior officials at Treasury”.

Fuzile’s testimony supported submissions made by both Nene and Jonas when they testified before the commission.

Fuzile said at first he struggled to believe the information that Godongwana was sharing with him but he began to see some truth in it when he “started to connect the dots” following “inexplicable events” both at Treasury and in government.

He also added that Godongwana’s warning did not end there – he also told him that the candidates that would be replacing the four Treasury employees earmarked for removal “would be of Indian descent and would control the minister (Des van Rooyen)”.

Fuzile is set to continue his testimony at the commission on Thursday.

Godongwana will be requested to confirm these allegations at a later date, according to evidence leader Advocate Vincent Maleka.

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