Parliament discusses OUTA's evidence on ex-Minister Muthambi

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications will discuss allegations of state capture against former Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi which were in OUTA’s report to Parliament in June last year.

The committee meeting is at 10am on Tuesday 27 March.

In OUTA’s report, "No Room to Hide", the organisation presented evidence that, as Minister of Communications, Muthambi shared confidential information via email with Tony Gupta which allowed the Gupta family to influence government policy.

The emails, from the #GuptaLeaks collection, indicate that the Gupta family also influenced then President Zuma to transfer power to Muthambi’s portfolio.

This additional control allowed her to influence the encryption policy and permanently appoint Hlaudi Motsoeneng as COO of the SABC despite the Public Protector’s findings and recommendations on Motsoeneng’s corrupt dealings.

OUTA’s report further points out that in 2015 Muthambi proposed appointing Vuyo Batyi as chairperson of ICASA on condition that she grant the Gupta-owned Infinity Media a free-to-air license. However, when Batyi refused, Muthambi declined to gazette her appointment.

Since publishing the report the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has laid criminal charges against Muthambi of high treason and corruption. The docket is now in the hands of a special team of prosecutors assigned to consider all state capture allegations.

In February 2017, Muthambi was moved from Communications to Minister of Public Service and Administration. In February this year she was dropped from the Cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

OUTA’s report on state capture has also been discussed by the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, as part of its inquiry into Eskom.