On Friday, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) laid charges of fraud, extortion, corruption and high treason against the director-general of the Department of Public Enterprises, Mogokare Richard Seleke.
According to Outa, and based on information gleaned from leaked Gupta e-mails, Seleke passed confidential e-mails from Eskom to the Guptas, inserted himself into state-owned entities’ deals, and helped the Guptas use confidential information to buy a cheap mine and rip off billions of rand from SA.
Outa says Seleke tried to cover his tracks with an anonymous e-mail address, but that this failed.
"This is an official who belongs not in public office but in jail," Outa chief operations officer Ben Theron said. "The fact that he is still in office despite what is now publicly known about his activities points to a compliant state that is run from Saxonwold. Why isn’t the National Prosecuting Authority taking action against officials like this?"
The charges against Seleke were laid at the Randburg Police Station in Johannesburg.
Seleke served on the Transnet board from November 2014 until November 2015, chairing the risk committee and serving on the acquisitions and disposals committee. At the same time he was the director-general of the Free State’s Department of Economic Affairs.
According to Theron’s affidavit, in March 2015 Seleke e-mailed Ashu Chawla, the CEO of Gupta-owned Sahara Computers, a spreadsheet showing how the Gupta empire would be paid hundreds of millions of dollars for brokering Transnet’s locomotive deal with China South Railways. "There is no conceivable basis upon which Seleke might lawfully have been involved in e-mail correspondence of this nature," the affidavit states.
Furthermore, in 2015 Seleke received confidential Eskom information from Koko Matshela, then Eskom executive for technical and commercial, and passed it on to the Guptas via Chawla and Tony Gupta. This helped the Guptas purchase the embattled Optimum coal mine from Glencore, by giving them information they could use to manipulate the deal.
In June 2015, Seleke e-mailed his CV to President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane — he used the anonymous e-mail to send "my CV" and signed it from "Richard", thus blowing his own cover — and by November he was appointed director-general of the National Department of Public Enterprises.
Still using his "anonymous" e-mail, Seleke passed on information about Denel.
In March 2016, he passed on a spreadsheet analysing trends in the rand exchange rate and balance of payments to Tony Gupta. "The most likely purpose behind the production of this spreadsheet was an attempt to influence public debate over the merits of retaining [Pravin] Gordhan in office as finance minister," Theron said. By the end of that month, Gordhan was fired.
"Public Enterprises is important to the Guptas because of their interest in contracts with state-owned enterprises. Against the backdrop of Seleke’s sustained improper relationship with the Guptas, it is difficult to find an innocent explanation for the president’s appointment of him to the position of director-general of Public Enterprises," Theron stated.
Meanwhile Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said in a written reply to a question in Parliament by Congress of the People (COPE) MP, Willie Madisha, that she was not aware that Seleke had disclosed sensitive or classified company information to the Guptas.
"I have since made enquiries with [Seleke] to respond to me directly on the substance and accuracy of what appears to be allegations. I will act depending on the information provided," Brown said.
In reply to a question by COPE leader, Mosiuoa Lekota, Brown justified Seleke’s appointment, saying the post of director-general was advertised in the media and that interviews were held. Seleke applied for the position and was chosen by the interview panel who believed he would be able to provide "excellent leadership" to the department on a strategic level; that he understood compliance matters and processes required in the public service; demonstrated the required competencies for the position; and demonstrated "innovative ideas, the ability to think out of the box and strong leadership capabilities".
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