Johannesburg - The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture is due to hear the testimony of two Travel Excellence travel agents. They have testified that their company was used regularly to book overseas trips for the Gupta family and many state employees linked to the infamous family.
Sameera Sooliman and Halima Allana, of the Lenasia-based company, have submitted written statements and evidence of how they were instructed and paid by Gupta associate Salim Essa for trips to Dubai and other countries for Eskom executives, Matshela Koko and Anoj Singh.
Other parties implicated in state capture, including former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane, Transnet executive Siyabonga Gama and former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane, have also been named as receiving fully paid overseas trips from the Gupta family via Travel Excellence.
Between 2015 and 2016, Travel Excellence is alleged to have received more than R100 000 from Essa to make travel and accommodation arrangements for Koko and his family to Indonesia and Dubai.
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Koko has denied this, despite invoices and email correspondence presented to him during one of his appearances at the Inquiry.
The commission is also scheduled to hold an evening session to hear parliamentary-oversight-related testimony from the former Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete on Tuesday at 4pm.
The ANC stalwart and former National Assembly Speaker has been out of the spotlight in recent months.
In 2019, she shocked viewers and embarrassed many South Africans with her reactions during an interview with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan. She had been invited to speak about whether the ruling ANC had betrayed Nelson Mandela's legacy since the advent of democracy in 1994.
Mbete launched into a vague defence of herself and her colleagues. She claimed that she had learnt of the issues involving the capture of state-owned entities and high-ranking politicians only through the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.
Asked about the millions spent on upgrading Nkandla, Mbete stood by former minister of police Nathi Nhleko's findings that the swimming pool at Zuma's private home was a fire-prevention tool.
She also defended her support of convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni, the only senior ANC member who has been successfully prosecuted for corruption. She said she had accompanied him to the prison gates to start his sentence, because she "did not believe that he had done the things he was being said to have done" and stressed that she was there in her capacity "as a comrade".
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