‘Witness 1’ tells Zondo commission of Molefe’s Saxonwold meetings, bags of cash
The commission of inquiry into state capture on Thursday heard the testimony from a former Transnet protection officer and driver.
Witness 1, as he is referred in order to protect his identity, told the commission that between 2011 and 2012 he drove Molefe to several meetings with Ajay Gupta.
Some of the meetings were at the family’s home in Saxonwold.
He also saw former minister Malusi Gigaba and his advisor at the time Siyabonga Mahlangu at some of the meetings held at the Gupta home.
Witness 1 also told the commission that Molefe sometimes took a brown leather bag to meet with Gupta and, when he did not have the bag, he would come out with a similar one.
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He further testified that he once found the same bag filled with R200 notes in a car they were driving.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo: “Was the bag full?”
Witness 1: “It was half.”
Advocate Paul Pretorius: “If you were to take those R200 notes and put them on the fall without flattening the pile at all, how high would that pile be in centimeters?”
Witness 1: “I would say 30 centimeters.”
He said Molefe got visibly irritated when he told him that carrying around so much money posed a risk to both of them.
Witness 1 told the commission that he and his family have received threats and have been followed around by suspicious vehicles.
