'What's the hullabaloo?' – Mantashe on ANC meeting with banks over closure of Gupta accounts
That the ANC met with banks over their decisions to close Gupta accounts is not new information, said the ANC's former secretary general and now national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, adding that the meetings were held so the party could understand the reasoning behind the closing of the accounts.
He made the comments on the sidelines of trade union federation Cosatu's 13 th congress, currently underway in Johannesburg.
Earlier, Standard Bank head of compliance Ian Sinton told the commission of inquiry into state capture about two meetings; one with senior ANC officials and the other with an inter-ministerial committee over the decision by the country's four big banks to stop doing business with the Gupta family.
Sinton claimed the meetings were aimed at persuading the bank to reverse its decision to close Gupta-linked bank accounts in 2016.
He revealed that in a meeting that took place at the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters Mantashe, deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte and head of the economic subcommittee Enoch Godongwana asked if Standard Bank was a part of a "white monopoly capital" campaign aimed at destroying black business.