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Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor was once hailed as a hero as she along with former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas were among the first individuals to blow the lid on the state capture project.
Fast forward a few years later and now following her cross examination at the state capture commission, which took the better part of this week, most people may be left wondering whether to believe Mentor’s version of events or not.
Speaking to City Press on Friday, Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem, who severed with Mentor for many years in the portfolio committee on intelligence, was also cross examined this week to verify some of Mentor’s claims stated by his colleague.
“Having worked with her, I do not doubt the credibility of Ms Mentor. In fact, as a country we owe her a great debt as she along with Jonas were the first people to expose state capture when at the time it wasn’t even fashionable.
“Her courage to speak out has led to numerous more people coming forward to reveal even more shocking accounts of the looting of state coffers for the benefit of a few well-connected individuals,” said Bloem.
He added that people should not be sidetracked by the nitty-gritties pertaining to Mentor not correctly remembering some of the details at the Gupta residence since so many years have passed since that meeting.
Doubt was cast on Mentor’s credibility this week when the Zondo commission’s legal team and investigators tore into the testimony she submitted in August last year. They poked numerous holes in her account of what took place and exposed serious discrepancies in her version of events.
In her August 2018 testimony before the Zondo commission, Mentor said that she had disclosed to a few members of the intelligence committee a 2016 meeting with the Guptas and former president Jacob Zuma in which she was offered the position of public enterprises minister.
She identified the members she had shared this “confidential information” with as Hlengiwe Mgabadeli, Bloem and the chairperson of the committee, Siyabonga Cwele.
The commission’s legal team, however, confronted her with the fact that Cwele could not have been the chairperson of any committee since he had already been appointed intelligence minister from 25 September 2008 until 10 May 2009 and after the elections in 2009 was appointed minister of state security until 2014. Mentor also backtracked on a number of other details she had said in her initial testimony.
While being cross examined at the commission on Thursday, Bloem revealed that after Jonas and Mentor went public with the alleged offers that were given to them by the Guptas, he also took this information that Mentor had confided in him to the Brooklyn Police Station and opened a case of corruption and treason against Zuma and the Guptas.
He told City Press that since 2016, the time the case was opened, there has not been any action taken by the police.
“The last I heard of the matter was when a Hawks official Richard Mnonopi went to interview Jonas and Mentor in an attempt at getting more information on the case I had opened. This was the last I heard of it. The matter simply went flat. Until today there hasn’t been any action taken. That case was never taken to court,” said Bloem.
He, however, maintained that he had “a lot of confidence in the Zondo commission,” that it would finally bring those who took part in the state capture project to justice.
He also called on more individuals with information relating to state capture to come forward and make their voices heard.
City Press reached out to both the Brooklyn Police Station and Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi but received no response.
