Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi has asked businessman Mthunzi Mdwaba to prove his bribery allegations in court. Picture: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers
Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi Nxesi has urged businessman Mthunzi Mdwaba to bring evidence in court that he is implicated in the R500 million kickback scandal with other ministers.
Mdwaba has named Nxesi, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula as four politicians who tried to solicit a bribe of R500 million through intermediaries.
The politicians have taken legal action against Mdwaba. Nzimande laid criminal charges against him in Pretoria this week for failing to report corruption.
Nxesi, who was part of the Ministers in the Economics Cluster answering questions in Parliament on Wednesday, said Mdwaba must stop going to social media to report on alleged corruption against him.
He challenged him to bring evidence to court.
“The allegations, which you are talking about, I have said, and I want to say, Mthunzi Mdwaba must not run to social media. He must come and put those allegations on record in court and be able to say this deal is being cancelled because we demanded kickbacks. He must come and say those things on record in court, and we are ready to interrogate what he is saying. But I want to put it very clearly: I reject those allegations with the contempt they deserve,” said Nxesi.
Nxesi denied that he was implicated in the Thuja Capital deal, worth R5 billion, and said he was the one who stopped it.
When they became aware of this agreement between the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Department of Labour, and Thuja Capital, they stopped any payments of monies and called it off. He then ordered an investigation.
There was now a court process to set aside the agreement.
Nxesi said he was not implicated in any form of corruption in the deal.
“’I am not sure what you mean when you say I am implicated in the Thuja deal because I am the one who stopped it, when I am the one who started investigating it. I am not sure what you are talking about,” said Nxesi.
He said he would bring the report to Parliament on the matter at the right time.
The report relates to the investigation he ordered over the R5bn deal between the UIF, the department, and Thuja Capital.
When the matter became public, he launched an investigation and stopped any payments.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics