(Bloomberg) -- Former South African Minister of Sports and Recreation Fikile Mbalula said he first heard about his pending appointment to that position through a phone call from Ajay Gupta, a few days before then-President Jacob Zuma officially named him.
Mbalula made the claim in testimony Friday at a commission investigating allegations that billions of rand of taxpayer funds were stolen from government coffers by allies of Zuma with his tacit consent. The Gupta family are friends of the former president and were in business with his son.
“I've had a personal encounter with the Guptas in relation to the appointment of ministers, where I received a call from Mr Ajay Gupta where he actually congratulated me before I was even appointed as a minister,” Mbalula told the panel in Johannesburg.
Revelations at hearings of the commission, headed by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, have implicated a number of other senior politicians and officials, damaging the ruling African National Congress's reputation before general elections in May.
Mbalula, 47, said he told senior party officials at a 2011 meeting of the ANC's National Executive Committee that he was shocked at receiving the phone call from the Guptas before Zuma appointed him.
“I took that matter to the NEC to say that this thing of the Guptas and them interfering and calling ministers and so on is a big problem,” Mbalula said. “One day this thing will land us in a big crisis.”
--With assistance from Amogelang Mbatha.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nkululeko Ncana in Johannesburg at nncana@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, Karl Maier, Liezel Hill
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