A former transport minister, Ben Martins, has become one of the latest victims of ‘Guptagate’.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has called on the National Prosecuting Authority to investigate payments made to the former minister.
The payments were made by Mabengela Investments and former CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), Lucky Montana.
Martins was Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises from November 2010 to June 2012, Minister of Transport from June 2012 to July 2013, then Minister of Energy for a while and, during 2017/18, was again Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises.
According to a statement released by Outa, on 31 January 2018, Martins appeared at the parliamentary inquiry into Eskom conducted by the Public Enterprises Portfolio Committee. He testified that he had conducted meetings with members of the Gupta family but emphasised that he was not a friend of theirs. He furthermore submitted a written statement to the Portfolio Committee with the following closing paragraph: “Finally, I repeat that if there is anyone who has evidence of criminality on my part they should report it to the relevant authorities.”
Outa has done this in its formal referral to Advocate Hermione Cronje, Director of the Investigating Directorate.
Outa submitted evidence that Mabengela Investments made payments to Martins totalling an amount of R240 000. Four payments of R60 000 each were made to Martins’ bank account from December 2010 to July 2011. At the time of the payments Rajesh “Tony” Gupta and Duduzane Zuma were the directors of Mabengela Investments. The first payment was made shortly after Martins became Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises in November 2010.
At the parliamentary inquiry Martins also testified that he had met with the Guptas at official events and once at their home in Saxonwold for an Indian food fair. He also testified that he had met Tony Gupta and Duduzane Zuma twice at his ministerial residence in Pretoria together with Lucky Montana, the CEO of Prasa at the time. According to Martins, he was only facilitating the meeting between Montana and Tony Gupta where a Prasa tender was discussed. Outa’s investigation shows that Martins had several other meetings with Tony Gupta that he failed to declare. The evidence was retrieved from Gupta’s electronic diary in the Gupta leaks, the statement says.
Martins not only received payments from the Guptas, but also received three payments from Montana in the total amount of R60 000, from November 2010 to September 2011. Martins was appointed as the Minister of Transport in 2012, a time when there was public pressure to remove Montana as CEO from Prasa. At the parliamentary inquiry Martins testified that he had assured Montana at that meeting with Tony Gupta that he would not support his removal as CEO of Prasa.
Martins failed to declare the additional income he received from the Guptas and Montana to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests.
