To Malusi, with love from Russia and the Guptas

Cape Town - New Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has received a number of gifts from Gupta-owned company Sahara and the Russian ambassador.

They date back from the time that he was an ANC MP.

In 2006 and 2007, he received a bouquet of snacks from Sahara, and in 2008, a “royal crystal rock bowl” from the same company “in celebration of Diwali”, according to Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests.

In 2006 and 2007 – as well as in 2014, when Gigaba was still the public enterprises minister – he was given a bottle of vodka from Russia’s ambassador.

And in 2016, as home affairs minister, Gigaba received wine from the ambassador.

At the time of publication, Fin24 had received no response from Gigaba’s office to requests for comment on the gifts.

David Maynier, the DA’s shadow minister of finance, told Fin24 there was “something suspicious” in the minister’s declarations of gifts from Sahara.

“I am less interested in what has been disclosed than in what may not have been disclosed.

"The minister is open about the fact that he has met the Guptas. But strangely, the Gupta gifts come to an end before he becomes a minister.

"Something just doesn’t add up here.”