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Former public protector Thuli Madonsela was mistaken. Brian Molefe wasn’t in Saxonwold as many times as the report into state capture claims. And he doesn’t appreciate the “innuendo” of “improper motive or conduct” contained in the report.
These comments formed part of a hard-hitting reply this morning to comments made by Madonsela at the iDAfrica conference on Monday.
Speaking at the conference in Cape Town – which focused on information technology, data and mobile and streaming television – Madonsela used the example of how the use of technology and data capturing tools had empowered the Public Protector’s office and enabled it to conduct informed investigations.
“What does one do when that is not categorical. Technology does not lie. That is how you can say that Mr Molefe was at Saxonwold at a certain time,” Madonsela said.
The statement was based on records of Molefe’s cellular phone calls between August 5 and November 17 2015.
Molefe – who was seconded to Eskom in the chief executive role in April 2015, following four years as group chief executive of Transnet – said Madonsela mistook the number of calls made or received for the number of times he was in the Saxonwold area.
“Since the release of the report, I have thoroughly examined my cellular phone records and have established that during the period in question, I was in the Saxonwold area five times and not the 19 times claimed by the former Public Protector,” he said.
The report also claimed that “between the period August 2 2015 and March 22 2016 Mr Molefe has called Mr Ajay Gupta a total of 44 times and Mr Ajay Gupta has called Mr Molefe a total of 14 times. It does not, however, list the phone numbers or the actual times that I am supposed to have made the calls,” Molefe said.
The “false and outrageous claim” in the State of Capture report that he was in the Saxonwold area for a total of 19 times “was a euphemism or code that I was in the Gupta family home,” said Molefe, who wanted Madonsela to tell him why she “imputed improper motive or conduct by innuendo out of the brief times” that he was in the Saxonwold area.
He also couldn’t understand “why the diagram in page 123 of the State of Capture report is largely illegible” and questioned the “uncommon and curious use of the US date standard format on the diagrams on pages 123 and 124 of the report.”
Molefe has maintained that he wasn’t afforded the opportunity to comment on the report before it was released to the public.
“I would have raised this and other discrepancies had Ms Madonsela afforded me an opportunity to present my side of the story,” he said.
• August 5 2015 when, according to the cell phone service provider’s records,
“I was in the area between 09h17 and 09h41 and made one call and received nine others” he said.
• August 17 2015 when, according to the cell phone service provider’s records, he made one call while in transit in the area;
• August 18 2015 when, according to the cell phone service provider’s records, he made two calls while in transit in the area;
• August 23 2015 when, according to the cell phone service provider’s records, he listened to his voice messages while in transit in the area, and;
• August 28 2015 when, according to the cell phone service provider’s records, he “received two calls, listened to my voice messages and received one call while in transit in the area”.
