14 Sep GUPTAS, ACE MAGASHULE AND DUDUZANE ZUMA LINKED TO JAGERSFONTEIN IN ZONDO TESTIMONY
A tailings dam at Jagersfontein burst over the weekend.
Mlungisi Louw/Netwerk24
Tony Gupta offered a former Free State MEC a R2 million bribe derived from the Jagersfontein mine in 2012 – a source of funds that allegedly also lined the pockets of then-Free State premier Ace Magashule and former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane, according to testimony at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
On Sunday, Jagersfontein made headlines when a tailing dam burst, killing at least one person and injuring countless others. The cause of the disaster is being probed by government.
Three years ago, Mxolisi Dukwana, the former MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs in the Free State, said he was offered R2 million a month by Tony Gupta, funds which allegedly stemmed from the Jagersfontein mine.
Dukwana is currently the convenor of the ANC in the Free State, and the province’s MEC for cooperative governance.
He said in an affidavit to the inquiry:
Tony intimated to me that both [Ace] Magashula and Duduzane Zuma were recipients of monies in cash from a mining project from Jagersfontein mine.
Dukwana said in an affidavit to the inquiry that neither Magashula nor Duduzane disputed Gupta’s claim at the meeting when it was made in 2012.
In 2019, Duduzane Zuma denied Dukwana’s allegations in testimony at the state capture inquiry, while Magashule also denied the claims.
Commission chair Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, however, noted that this part of Dukwana’s testimony was “not disputed,” as Magashule has not testified at the inquiry. He included it verbatim in Part 4 of the State Capture report.
While Dukwana referenced the mine multiple times in testimony before the commission in April 2019 and in two affidavits, he did not explain how Tony Gupta was linked to or able to source funds from the shuttered mine or its tailings operations – the latter being owned by Jagersfontein Developments.
Jagersfontein Developments, which was incorporated in 2010 when the mine dumps were acquired from De Beers, had not provided comment to News24 at the time of publication on Wednesday.
A visit to the compound
Dukwana testified that in February 2012, he was taken by Magashule to the Gupta family compound in Saxonwold, Johannesburg. At the time, Dukwana was also the treasurer of the ANC in the Free State and Magashule was the party’s provincial chair.
Dukwana said Magashule told him the trip was to “meet and address business people” originally from the Free State for party fundraising.
He said Tony Gupta met him at the compound. He also testified that they were joined by Duduzane Zuma. Zuma has denied attending the meeting.
Dukwana told the commission that, after handing over his cellphone, he was ushered into a room where Tony Gupta asked him to sign a document appointing a firm called Nulane to run a proposed project called the “City for Tomorrow”.
A number of officials linked to Nulane have since been arrested and appeared in court on fraud charges in a case linked to the Free State Department of Agriculture.
The project proposal, which never took off, was to build a new high-tech city in the Free State. Dukwana, who said the new city idea was in its infancy at the time, was told that the Free State provincial government would ratify Nulane’s appointment if he signed.
“I refused to append my signature,” he stated in his affidavit. Dukwana said that “in an effort to try to persuade me”, Tony Gupta then told him that both Magashule and Duduzane Zuma were “recipients of monies in cash from a mining project from Jagersfontein mine”.
Testifying before the commission in October 2019, Duduzane Zuma said he had no links to the mine and had received no money from it. He added that as far as he was aware, the Guptas – with whom he was in business – also had no interest in the mine.
Zondo notes that Magashule, on the other hand, did not offer “any affidavits or statements to dispute Mr Dukoana’s evidence”. While Magashule did not testify before the commission, he did deny Dukwana’s version of events as “baseless and malicious” in a media statement.
A history of Jagersfontein
After operating for over a century, De Beers shuttered the Jagersfontein mine in 1971 and in 2010 sold the tailings for an undisclosed amount to the Superkolong Consortium.
The consortium comprised BEE mining company Superkolong, Sonop Diamond Mining, and Reinet Investments – billionaire Johann Rupert’s Luxembourg-based investment vehicle. Earlier this year Reinet sold its interest in Jagersfontein for 20 million Euros to Stargems Holdings – a global diamond polishing, cutting and selling company.
While the mine is uneconomical to operate, the enormous dump resources are considered highly attractive for the recovery of gems through advanced processing technology.
R2 million payday?
Dukwana told the inquiry that he did not know much about the mine at the time but had heard there were some “challenges regarding the community” about “mining the dumps”.
He testified that Tony Gupta then told him that he would receive a monthly payment of R2 million for the duration of the contract, which could have lasted up to 10 years.
He did not say whether Tony Gupta explained his links to the mine, or how he was able to make money from it.
Dukwana said:
I was told by Tony that if I appended my signature at the time, an instant payment of R2 million would be given to me … In this regard, a gentleman of Indian descent was called by Tony and Tony whispered something words in the language unknown to me. The gentleman left the room and came back with a black pilot bag.
“He opened the bag it …. then he took out a stash and he says this is R2 million. It was R200 bank notes.”
Dukwana said he had to “think fast” and asked that he be allowed to show the letter to a legal advisor as a stalling tactic. While Tony Gupta appeared ready to hand over the letter to him, Magashule then “mumbled something to Tony”. He was then asked to give the letter back to Tony Gupta.
Dukwana said that Magashule was evidently not pleased by his refusal to sign. He eventually left and flew back to Bloemfontein. Later that month, he learnt he had been fired as MEC.
Dukwana later resigned from the provincial legislature, but has since returned to politics.
Another meeting with Tony Gupta
The February 2012 meeting is not the only time that Dukwana said he met Tony Gupta.
In January 2014, he was invited to the group’s Oakbay offices. Asked by the evidence leader why he attended, given that he was uncomfortable at the previous meeting,
Dukwana said he wanted to find out more about the Jagersfontein mine issue and “how it linked with everything, especially in the diamond sector”.
But in his evidence, he did not say if the two again discussed the mine.
Upon leaving Tony Gupta gave him R10 000 for “petrol money”, which he said he accepted as he was not in government at the time and it was not linked to anything.
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