Staff Reporter
Former Free State MEC for Economic Development Mxolisi Dukwana took the stand at the state capture inquiry today to testify against former Free State Premier and current ANC secretary general Ace Magashule.
During his testimony Dukwana revealed that his official diary was removed from his office after he was relieved of his duties. Dukwana was told that his diary cannot be located, but no record of its removal was documented. He said locating the diary is important to verify information he provides.
Judge Raymond Zondo said that, “there is no reason why the commission should rely solely on cooperation from the provincial government and cellphone records are possible to retrieve.”
On this matter, Dukwana said a letter from the cellphone company [Vodacom] stated they would require a subpoena in order to retrieve Dukwana’s cellphone records.
Zondo enquired about the reasons why Dukwana was also not able to retrieve all his emails from his work laptop.
Dukwana said his lawyers and other parties were sent to his office after his removal to retrieve his laptop and other devices, but this was not possible. He said he was unaware of the whereabout of the laptop. The evidence leader said the province informed them that investigation into locating the laptop was still underway.
“Either there is a computer somewhere or there isn’t one,” said Zondo.
Meeting the Guptas
Dukwana said the first time he met Tony Gupta was on an occasion initiated by Magashule, who was at the time the Free State MEC for Sport. They arrived at the Sahara offices in Midrand, where Tony asked Magashule for his ID. Magashule indicated to Dukwana that he was going to go into business with the Guptas, but would have his son conduct the business activities.
Dukwana said he was surprised by the lengthy explanation from Magashule.
Later, Dukwana said the department embarked on a trip to India as a means to develop a local ICT hub in the province that was an initiative between the free state government and the university of technology – this hub was meant to be the “Silicon Valley of South Africa”.
He said they were also going to negotiate to place more than 42 young people to train in technology, and that India was not singled out as a country but rather it was already selected by the university as a country of interest.
Dukwana said the visit did not produce constructive results.
In 2012 ahead of the provincial elective conference, Dukwana said Magashule had contacted him and told him about a fundraising dinner taking place in Johannesburg.
Dukwana said they arrived at the Gupta compound and he was welcomed by Tony Gupta. He asked Dukwana to hand over his cellphone, but Magashule was not asked for his cellphone.
Not long after Magashule and Tony Gupta had ‘disappeared’ together, Dukwana said that they returned about 15 minutes later with Duduzane Zuma and others.
Tony then handed Dukwana a letter and asked him to sign it. The letter had a letterhead of the MEC’s office, which worried Dukwana.
The letter detailed all the processes to be taken for the ICT hub and was addressed to a company called Nulane Investment.
“The letter purported to be written by me and I was expected to sign this letter giving this company the project for the ICT hub.”
He was told that if he signed the letter, he would be given R2-million immediately and R2-million per month over the period of the contract.
Tony said that with other projects involving Duduzane and Magashule, he would make R3-million, and he personally would drive to Duduzame and Magashule and give them each R1-million. Both the parties agreed in the meeting that it was true.
