Douglas Ramaphosa, who is Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's younger brother, says there is no similarity between his appointment to the board of private schools group Curro Holdings and that of Duduzane Zuma to the board of a Gupta company.
Curro announced the younger Ramaphosa's appointment as an independent nonexecutive director last week.
When Cyril Ramaphosa becomes president it will have obtained the services of possibly the best-connected person in the country.
In the context of state capture and the future president's determination to eradicate anything with a whiff of irregularity about it, what message does this send?
"It's a private sector company, so there is no issue there," says Ramaphosa junior.
The number of pupils enrolled in Curro schools, according to its interim financial results to June 30
— 47 002
"I don't see any conflict or problem for me to be on the board of a private company.
"Curro doesn't have any contracts with government, so we're not taking government money. Whereas the Guptas were using state-owned enterprises to enrich themselves, Curro is a private school company which is out there. It does not tender for business from SOEs.
"I don't see any conflict whatsoever, which is why I agreed to join the board."
Won't having a director so close to the centre of power be a clear bonus for Curro in terms of government policy on private education, especially given its opposition to the sector?
He will recuse himself if such matters come before the board, he says.
I don't see any conflict or problem for me to be on the board of a private company
— Douglas Ramaphosa
There are many ways a close family member of the president could influence policy, as the Zuma family has demonstrated.
With private education such a political issue, is Curro in effect buying political influence?
"I know the times are very politically charged, but I'm going there as a professional," says Ramaphosa.
"I'm not a politician. I'm not in politics."
He is, however, a card-carrying member of the ANC, which his brother leads.
"I'm going there as a private businessman who has experience in and is passionate about education."
As a former executive at Anglo American, Absa and Altron, Ramaphosa knows about corporate governance. Is his appointment good corporate governance?
"Many people who were in politics and are still in politics serve in the private sector," he says.
Aren't we supposed to be moving away from that kind of thing?
"If it was not good corporate governance Curro would not have touched me.
"They came to me because of my background in education and because I am a businessman. On the basis of that they thought I could add value."
Curro schools have attracted government ire for racism. Might he provide a measure of protection from this?
His presence on the board would help to ensure that Curro had the right policies in place to prevent racism, he says.
There is no way he'd be able to shield it from the consequences of racism just because he was the president's brother.
"If you look at what civil society is doing these days, civil society does not leave any stone unturned," he says.
"So there is no way that because they've got the deputy president or president's brother on board they'll be protected if there is any wrongdoing in their schools. There is no way. Civil society is up in arms, and rightly so. So I don't think they're going to be shielded from anything by having a Ramaphosa on their board."
The younger Ramaphosa's struggle credentials are impeccable.
He joined the ANC underground at 14 and later played a leadership role in the 1976 Soweto student uprising. He was detained for a year, "tortured badly" and kept in solitary confinement for more than six months.
In 1979 he was warned he was in danger and advised by the ANC in exile to leave South Africa immediately.
He went to Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania, where he taught history, English and biology at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College.
In 1982 he was sent to university in Russia where he spent his first year learning Russian and then majored in political science, history, anthropology and sociology.
While there he and his South African wife had a son whose only language for seven years until they returned to Tanzania was Russian.
He taught at the college until returning to South Africa in 1990.
His first job was senior manager in the human resources department at Transnet. He was a director for Eskom Enterprises and chairman of its maintenance division.
After a two-year stint at the Altron group he became head of corporate affairs at Absa, where he got to know the head of marketing, Santie Botha, who, as the chairwoman of Curro, invited him to join the board. In 2004 he became executive director for corporate affairs at Anglo American. He left after 18 months to rejoin Altron as head of corporate affairs .
He worked closely with CEO Robbie Venter and became "very close to him and the Venter family". Founder and chairman Bill Venter's links with the apartheid regime didn't bother him.
"He had relations with the previous regime, but he's a man who has contributed a lot to this country. Just look at the number of schools he has built."
He left Altron last year when new leadership took over. He says he had turned 60 and wanted "my own time, and to get involved in other businesses".
He is a director of IT company Satori Tech Hub and is on a mission "to get young people to follow an IT career".
There's a big shortage of IT people in South Africa, which he blames on the "defunct" education system. Private education plays a crucial role in filling South Africa's yawning skills gap, he says.
How does he square his position at Curro with the ANC's sometimes vocal opposition to private education?
"Many, and I mean many, ANC officials send their own children to private schools," he says.
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