Carolus tells of Gigaba ‘lies’ at Zondo commission
Former South African Airways (SAA) board chairperson Cheryl Carolus has accused former minister of public enterprises Malusi Gigaba of lying during her tenure at the national carrier.
Carolus told the commission of inquiry into state capture on Thursday that Gigaba not only lied to the Speaker of Parliament about the state of financials at SAA, but also lied about being in possession of a letter of guarantee from Treasury.
According to Carolus, Gigaba misled Parliament when she told the speaker that SAA financials were not ready, ahead of an annual general meeting.
“At the time the minister made the statement on the 27 September 2012 that he had been in receipt of our financial statements. Our completed and audited clean set of result on the 31 August as is lawfully required by the PFMA. So there was no absolutely no case raised by our auditors he was aware of it, he received it such and we were waiting to present those statements to the formal AGM processes”.
Carolus said she was surprised when an article in Business Day suggested that the board was not ready with its financials.
Carolus further revealed how Gigaba also lied about being in possession of a letter of guarantee for SAA.
She says the claims were made when they met at a restaurant in Pretoria.
“On Tuesday 25 September, as I approached him I said to him 'where is my papier?', and before we sat down I repeated, 'my papier asseblief?'.
“He looked at me completely surprised and said 'Did my people not give you the letter?' You know your people can really let you down sometimes.
He said 'it’s there, it’s been agreed'.
He goes further and says 'I come from PG, I come from Pravin now and if I knew they didn’t give you the letter, I could have just asked him for the copy and he could have signed it’,” Carolus said.
However, a letter by Gigaba on 27 September 2012, contradicts his statement that he indeed was in possession of a letter of guarantee.
“What becomes apparent from the documents we have obtained from National Treasury is that Mr Gordhan only approved the guarantee on the Wednesday the 26th and was submitted to the DPE on the morning of the 27 September 2012,” the commission’s Kate Hofmeyr said, while reading out a statement written by Gigaba.