Van Rooyen must come clean about his meetings with the Guptas 

2 November 2016

The DA calls on the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Des van Rooyen, to break his silence and come clean publicly on his meetings with the Gupta family. 

Minister van Rooyen has consistently denied his association with the Guptas. Yet new reports place him at the Gupta compound in Saxonwold seven times in the week prior to his appointment as Minister of Finance.

The Minister is yet to deny these reports. 

The DA has already reported van Rooyen to the Public Protector, Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane, for misleading Parliament and the public, and we are currently considering other steps to be taken against the Minister in this regard.

But there is no reason for van Rooyen to wait, especially now that his application for a court interdict to block the release of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on state capture has been struck off the roll. 

He can do the right thing and clear the cloud of suspicion by coming clean about his meetings with the Guptas as well as whether there were any discussions between himself and Eric Wood and/or Ian Whitely on the use of municipal assets to secure private debt financing for municipalities by Gupta-linked companies.  

The DA will continue to ensure that those hell-bent on plundering state resources for the benefit of Zuma and his cronies are held to account and that state funds are used for the benefit of South Africans.

Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 2 November 2016