Former Trillian Financial Advisory CEO Mosilo Mothepu says she was informed in March 2016 that then president Jacob Zuma planned to fire finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
Mothepu also testified before the commission of inquiry into state capture on Thursday that she had also been informed beforehand that another finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, was going to be fired in October 2015 — a few weeks before he was removed.
Her evidence is the latest confirmation of the allegations made at the state capture commission that the Gupta family and their associates knew long beforehand of cabinet reshuffles and could have participated in some of them. The Gupta brothers are friends of former president Jacob Zuma who made billions of rand from favoured deals with the state and state-owned entities. They have since fled the country.
She told the commission that she was informed by Trillian financial director Tebogo Leballo on March 16 2016 — on her birthday — that Gordhan would be removed.
She said Trillian Management Consulting CEO Bianca Goodson was also present.
“We were sitting in a very tight open-plan and it was the 16th of March. I remember as it was my birthday. And Mr Leballo tells me and Bianca that the president wants to fire minister Pravin Gordhan.”
Mothepu said Leballo was whispering and he then wrote something down on her notepad. “I still have the original notepad.”
In the note, Leballo wrote the words: “changing finance minister”.
“I was shocked and horrified, given the fact that Nenegate had such a devastating economic effect on SA and that the former president was considering moving the new minister who had stabilised the market. This caught me off guard,” Mothepu said.
Gordhan was removed from his position a year later, on March 31 2017.
Mothepu said a few months after Lebello's revelation, she sent a statement to then public protector Thuli Madonsela‚ with detailed allegations of how the Gupta family had allegedly exercised influence over Zuma and other senior government officials to score lucrative state contracts.
“What ensued was nine criminal charges that Trillian laid against me,” she said. The charges included cybercrime, fraud, theft, perjury and corruption.
“It was shocking how I was called by the police to give a warning statement. He tells me ... that because of who these people are and the political connections they have, he has to expedite my case,” she said.
Early on Thursday Mothepu told the commission how she got to know of the removal of Nene and his replacement by a “pliable” Des van Rooyen albeit for a few days.
She said Trillian co-founder Eric Wood had told her “out of the blue” on October 26 2015 that then president Jacob Zuma was going to fire Nene.
“He told me that the new minister will be pliable and that he will approve transactions the old minister was not approving.” She said Wood told her the projects Van Rooyen needed to approve included the nuclear deal.
At the time Mothepu and Wood were working at Gupta-linked consultancy Regiments Capital. They moved to Trillian on March 1 2016.
Nene was fired on December 9 2015.
Mothepu told the commission that the first thing she did when she got to work on the morning of December 10 2015 was to go to Wood’s office. “I said ‘you were right about Nene being fired’. He said Mohamed Bobat, who was a principal at Regiments, will be Van Rooyen’s special adviser.” That also came to pass.
Mothepu said the projects Van Rooyen had to approve included the formation of a “black bank”, the establishment of a “black insurer for short-term requirements of state”, and the collection of municipal debt.
“These were key new initiatives they wanted the new minister to approve. They wanted to give the new minister projects [to approve] so that he looks good, but the engine room would be Regiments. They were going to put their fee on each project. That’s what he [Wood] told me,” said Mothepu.
“He [Wood] said he [Bobat] will set up a team at Trillian — because we were now moving to Trillian — with special expertise that will execute these initiatives and he [Bobat] will give us insider knowledge so when the tenders come they have privileged information,” Mothepu testified.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.