The EFF says in a statement by national spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi that the Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Joseph Zwane, on a recent international trip formed part of the Gupta delegation of the Tegeta Exploration and Resources to visit Glencore in Switzerland and negotiate the purchase of Optimum Colliery.
The party said it is not in the least shocked by this because they warned against Zwane’s appointment into the Mineral Resources Department in the first place. This was nothing more than a capture of the department by the Gupta family.
“Zwane is nothing but a stooge of the Gupta family which he has served for many years; from facilitating their landing at the Waterkooof Airforce Base for a wedding at Sun City in 2013, to introducing a R570 million dairy project in which a Gupta-linked company was involved and set to benefit whilst serving as MEC of Agriculture in the Free State Province,” says the EFF.
The party claims Zwane is now travelling the world, using taxpayers money, to secure the business interests of the Guptas with “a criminal company called Glencore. Glencore is known for manipulating accounting practices to erode the tax base of African countries. It is also well-known for breaking international law in pursuit of profits by trading with illegitimate governments like apartheid and other despotic regimes – despite UN embargoes. Its crimes even extend to environmental degradation in Latin America and a direct refusal to have women in its higher management positions by claiming that women are incapable of senior business leadership”.
The EFF says Zwane’s appointment to the South African cabinet had nothing to do with the collective and developmental interests of the people of South Africa. He serves at the pleasure of the Guptas and will do so to the end. The EFF has now called on an his immediate removal from cabinet to save the country’s minerals sector from “being completely collapsed and compromised by the corruption of the Guptas”.
