Gigaba hammers media for helping to peddle ‘lies’ about him

Source: The Citizen, 15/06/2017

The minister alleges a paid campaign started being waged against him
since he became finance minister.


“We must try, to the best of our abilities, to avoid being information
peddlers,” Gigaba told journalists at the end of a media briefing in
Pretoria on Thursday after speaking about the state of the
economy.


He lashed out at reports on allegations levelled against him by Julius
Malema and Vytjie Mentor and said the media was too quick to publish
unverified allegations.


“I would have been much happier if you had studied a little bit the
issues you are bringing up so that you are able to argue them out
properly.


“Remember that at one stage I was accused of having an offshore
account. Those accusations still hang in the air and I’m being asked
to prove if I have it or not. But the person who made the allegation
hasn’t been asked to provide prima facie evidence.”


Malema and the EFF had alleged in a press conference that the Gupta
family had bought a house for Gigaba while he was still in another
portfolio.


“There was an allegation that in Cape Town I live in a house that was
bought for me, not a government house. And some of your colleagues in
the media ran with the story without calling public works to ask. It’s
a simple thing. Call public works. Ask. You would have found your
information.


“Instead of peddling wrong information, you would have written a
correct story that the person making the allegation is lying.”


He then turned to former ANC MP Mentor, who has variously alleged that
Gigaba has signed a nuclear deal with Russia, which turned out not to
be true, had an affair with a woman named Judy and that he is actually
Zimbabwean.


“A story is made that I’m not South African. Some of your colleagues
run with this story, you don’t check whether this is true or not.
“You allow yourselves to participate in insulting my family, insulting
my integrity, insulting my identity.
“An allegation was made that my father wasn’t South African. May his
soul rest in peace. But you run with this story, you don’t even dare
to check.”


He then turned to an allegation from the EFF that he had personally,
and improperly, granted citizenship to the Guptas while he was home
affairs minister.


“It could be, as with regards to all the other stories that are being
run, that the director-general of home affairs can explain to you that
the minister of home affairs on an annual basis deals with not one
application for a waiver, but with many. You deal with many decisions,
not only waivers. Some you approve, some you reject.


“Because you are the minister, you don’t have capacity in your office
to assess and evaluate documentation from people applying for whatever
forms of documents.


“Let me just take you through this issue of the naturalisation. These
people [the Guptas] applied for naturalisation in 2008 when someone
else was minister … they obtained their permanent residency in 2008
when someone else was minister of home affairs.


“Some of them obtained their naturalisation in 2013 when someone else
was minister of home affairs. In both instances it wasn’t me.


“Then a number of issues are raised that they are highly invested;
secondly, that you grant permanent residence to a father but not the
wife, and they ask you to regularise that, and you correct it.


He said the recommendation was ultimately made by this staff to
overturn the original decision on the Guptas’ application, “basically
saying overturn my decision because new facts have come to light …
we’ve reconsidered the matters. That’s the whole principle of
appeal.

It’s the same in government as it is in the courts.”
He said the allegations were aimed “completely to tarnish my name, to
defocus me from my work”.


“I hope you are not part of that agenda. My family has not been
spared. My wife has been rubbished. My father is being rubbished in
his death. It cannot be right.


“I’m sure that when the public protector looks at all of these issues
… let us trust that she will do a thorough job so that we can get to
the bottom of the matter. So that when we talk about urgent issues of
the economy we don’t get diverted to allegations that have not been
proved â€" where anybody can jump around making an allegation.


“It would seem to me you say ‘it would appear that the Guptas have
benefited’.”


He went on to defend his record as minister of home affairs.


“I know that the campaign against us will continue.”


He said people were being paid to run the campaign against him, and it
had started on the 30th of March, but he would remain focused on his work.