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Why has no-one been punished yet for state capture, asks Gordhan
One of the questions to be asked about the exposure of state capture in South Africa – on the political as well as business front - is why no one has been punished yet, according to former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
“Lots of names have been exposed and I think Jacques Pauw’s book [The President's Keepers] is a brilliant and courageous effort to connect a million dots to see who played what role,” Gordhan told Fin24. “The question is if law enforcement agencies will do their work. There is no shortage of information.”
Gordhan was honoured by the Business Ethics Network of Africa (BEN-Africa) at its ethics and energy conference hosted on Thursday in partnership with Deloitte. Gordhan received the Order of the Baobab for being “a true ethical leader, striving to do the right thing even when others choose a less ethical path”.
READ: Why has no-one been punished yet for state capture, asks Gordhan
Ben Martins denies Gupta ‘tea party’ with Eskom legal head
Deputy Public Enterprises Minister Ben Martins has denied meeting suspended Eskom head of legal Suzanne Daniels with Ajay Gupta and Duduzane Zuma in a flat near Melrose Arch in 2017.
“I am perplexed by Ms Suzanne Daniels’ testimony to the parliamentary inquiry into Eskom,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Daniels had told a Parliamentary inquiry that she had met Martins, together with Ajay Gupta, Gupta-associate Salim Essa and President Jacob Zuma's son Duduzane at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg in July 2017.
But Martins said this meeting didn't happen.
“As the head of Eskom’s legal department Ms Daniels should account to Parliament for what happened under her watch rather than seek to use the occasion to reinvent herself as clueless ignoramus.”
Martins did, however, admit that he met members of the Gupta family.
He said one such instance was when Tony Gupta and Lucky Montana, then CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa came to his government house in Pretoria to discuss transport-related matters.
READ: Ben Martins denies Gupta ‘tea party’ with Eskom legal head
You can now search hundreds of #GuptaLeaks emails
Pan-African whistleblowing site the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa (Pplaaf) has made hundreds of emails from the #GuptaLeaks publicly available on its website to help Parliament’s Eskom state capture inquiry.
In a statement on its website, Pplaaf - which has also published documents from former CEO of Trillian Management Consulting turned whistleblower Bianca Goodson - said the documents were made available “following testimony of whistleblowers represented by Pplaaf at the inquiry and at the request of the committee’s chairperson [Zukiswa] Rantho."
“The information [curated to show interactions] will be publicly accessible for a period of ten days only to assist with the completion of the inquiry. It is a sample from hundreds of thousands of emails, documents and invoices related to the GuptaLeaks,” it said.
READ: You can now search hundreds of #GuptaLeaks emails
An airline must not be a political football: Ex- SAA acting CEO
If an airline ends up being used as a political football instead of being operated on business merits, that can be one of its biggest stumbling blocks, according to Nico Bezuidenhout, CEO of fastjet.
fastjet is listed on the London Stock Exchange - the only African airline listed there. According to Bezuidenhout that means it has access to capital for funding purposes. The top 5 shareholders have about £500bn under management. It also means the airline operates on European safety standards.
He started at the helm of the low-cost African airline in August 2016 after twice being acting CEO of South African Airways and CEO of its low-cost subsidiary Mango.
During his time at Mango, Bezuidenhout grew the airline's market share to 25% of the SA domestic air travel market.
READ: An airline must not be a political football: Ex- SAA acting CEO
Facebook urges users to send nude pics to combat revenge porn
Facebook is trying to combat "revenge porn" by encouraging users in Australia to submit their nude photos to a pilot project designed to prevent intimate images from being shared without consent.
Adults who have shared nude or sexually explicit photos with someone online, and who are worried about unauthorised distribution, can report images to the Australian government's eSafety Commission.
They then securely send the photos to themselves via Messenger, a process that allows Facebook to "hash" them, creating a unique digital fingerprint.
READ: Facebook urges users to send nude pics to combat revenge porn
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