JOHANNESBURG, August 27 (ANA) - Former African National Congress (ANC) parliamentarian Vytjie Mentor will on Monday testify before the state capture commission of inquiry headed by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.
Mentor, who hails from the Northern Cape and is a former chairperson of Parliament's public enterprises' committee, received acclaim for lifting the lid on allegations of undue influence by the Gupta family and their associates.
In 2016, she revealed how former president Jacob Zuma and his government were under the control of the Guptas.
Mentor claimed the Guptas offered her the position of minister of public enterprises to replace Barbara Hogan. She was told she would become minister only if she agreed to discontinue the South African Airways flight to India.
The offer was allegedly made in 2010 at the Gupta compound while Zuma was in the next room. Mentor said after she turned down the offer and was about to leave, Zuma walked in. ''He kept saying don’t worry ntombazana, everything will be fine,'' Mentor alleged.
Zuma has since vehemently denied such an encounter with her ever happened.
Undeterred by death threats and insults meted against her on social media, Mentor released a book titled "No Holy Cows In My Political Life". In the 2017 book she alleges Zuma twice made inappropriate sexual advances towards her, which she rejected.
This, she wrote, happened back in the 1990's when she was a younger ANC member and again when she was the chairperson of the ANC caucus 10 years later.
Last week former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas made damning allegations before the commission about similar attempts to bribe him by the Guptas. He said the Guptas told him that Zuma would do whatever they wanted.
Jonas said the Guptas offered him bribes of R600,000 and R6 million if he was willing to take the job as finance minister and do their bidding thereafter. Jonas said he turned down the offers.
- African News Agency (ANA)
