‘Implausible’ That Gordhan Honestly Forgot About Meeting Gupta Brother: Mkhwebane

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has found it “implausible” that Public Enterprises Minister simply did not recall meeting one of the infamous Gupta brothers in 2010.

In a shocking report released on Friday, Mkhwebane makes several findings against Gordhan in relation to the establishment of an intelligence unit at the South African Revenue Service in 2007, and that he deliberately misled Parliament when he omitted the 2010 meeting from a written response to a question from a DA MP in 2016.

Gordhan in October 2018 told the Zondo Commission on state capture he had been reminded of the meeting by his then chief of staff, Dondo Mogajane.

But Mkhwebane found Gordhan violated the Executive Ethics Code and the Constitution by not disclosing the 2010 meeting in his written reply, saying she found it “rather implausible when one considers the prominence of the subject of state capture in South Africa.”