NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

WRITTEN REPLY

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION 3107

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 26 October 2018

Mr M Bagraim (DA) to ask the Minister of Economic Development:

Whether, since he served in Cabinet, he (a)(i) was ever influenced by any person and/or (ii) influenced any of his department’s employees to take any official administrative action on behalf of any (aa) member, (bb) employee and/or (cc) close associate of the Gupta family and/or (b) attended any meeting where any of the specified persons were present; if so, what are the relevant details in each case?NW3471E

REPLY:

(a) No.

(b) In the previous administration (2009-2014), members of the Gupta family were present at public or official functions or meetings that I attended, and as with other attendees, engaged with me at the events. Outside of such occasions, the following invitations or requests were directed at or received by me or by my office for bilateral meetings with members of the Gupta family:

i. In approximately late 2011, my office received a request from a member of the Gupta family to meet with me. As no information was provided to warrant a meeting with me, I declined the request and directed my office to refer them to meet with one of my officials instead, as is standard practice with many requests by business people for bilateral meetings. They did not take up the offer and no further effort was made by them subsequently to follow up on this request.

ii.  Personal invitations to celebrate Diwali were received on more than one occasion, which invitations I declined. In addition, sometime in early 2013 I received an invitation to attend a wedding involving relatives of the Gupta family in Sun City, which invitation I declined.

While this does not relate to a member of the Gupta family, in February 2010 on the day of the State of the Nation Address, Mr Duduzane Zuma came to briefly introduce himself to me at my offices in Parliament. No specific request was made by him at the meeting nor does my office have any record of a request for a follow-up meeting.

Issued by Parliament, 19 November 2018