Indian businessmen, Ajay Gupta and younger brother Atul Gupta, then Oakbay MD Jagdish Parekh with then Sahara director, Duduzane Zuma in March 2011. Martin Rhodes/Business Day/Gallo
Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday will be briefed by the Ministers of Home Affairs, Finance and the Director General of the Department of Home Affairs on naturalisation of the Gupta family.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba was due in Parliament on Tuesday morning to account for some members of the Gupta family’s naturalisation during his tenure as home affairs minister.
Along with him, his successor as minister of home affairs Hlengiwe Mkhize, and home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni, were called to appear before the portfolio committee on home affairs.
The Economic Freedom Fighters the week before last revealed that Gigaba, waved the residential requirements for the applications of Ajay Gupta, his wife Shivani, mother Angoori, and sons Kamal Kant Singhala and Surya Kant Singhala, for naturalisation and granted it to them early.
Gigaba said he did nothing wrong and Apleni last week sent a letter to the portfolio committee outlining the process followed in the naturalisation of the Gupta family members, concluding that everything was done by the book.
The letter, however, admitted that the naturalisation was never tabled in Parliament.
According to Democratic Alliance MP and spokesperson on home affairs, Haniff Hoosen, failure to table the naturalisation in Parliament is a breach of the law.
Hoosen was expected to ask Gigaba how the Guptas came to be in possession of confidential information of some of the critics, including the identification numbers and travel plans of former minister of finance Trevor Manuel and EFF leader Julius Malema. – News24
