Des van Rooyen misled parliament - PP finds

Van Rooyen deliberately mislead parliament when he answered questions over his visit to the Gupta family's home, an investigation by the Public Protector has found.

The findings relate to a written question to Van Rooyen from the DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen.

Van Rooyen was asked whether he ever met with a member of the Gupta family since taking office.

He replied that he and his deputy had never done so "in their official capacities".

But Mkhwebane found inconsistencies in his answers during her investigation and what he had told parliament.

Van Rooyen admitted to meeting the family in his response to questions by Mkhwebane.

"I am a treasurer-general of the MKMVA and part of my responsibility is to meet business people to enlist their support into our programmes," van Rooyen wrote. “It is in that capacity that I have met the members of the Gupta family."

As to why he failed to disclose this to Parliament, the minister claims he confined his response to Steenhuisen to any meetings in his capacity as the finance minister - an position he held for a weekend.

Mkhwebane says the Parliamentary question to Van Rooyen placed emphasis on when he met with the family and not in which capacity given the media reports over her predecessor's State of Capture report.

As a result, Mkhwebane has found Van Rooyen breached the Executive Ethics Act, as well as Section 96 of the Constitution - dealing with the conduct of cabinet ministers.

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The president has been given 30 days to take the necessary steps against Van Rooyen.

Read the whole report here: