Thuli tells Gupta to release recording of his interview

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela has urged Ajay Gupta to release the recording of his interview with her – so “the public can decide if I was biased or asked leading questions”.

“I remember he cried all the time and kept thanking me for agreeing to meet him. He was very grateful.

“I do recall that he denied any wrongdoing,” Madonsela said.

“If he has a different version of the meeting, I would urge him to ask that the audio of that interview be released to the public.”

She was responding to Ajay’s affidavit to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry that was released to Times Select on Thursday.

Ajay claims under oath that Madonsela asked leading questions about then deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas.

This was when she interviewed Ajay about the family’s alleged attempts to bribe Jonas.

But Madonsela said she would welcome the release of the audio interview to set the record straight.

Ajay, in his affidavit, accuses Jonas of deliberately lying about meeting him.

“This so-called lie was either by his own devising or by the devising of others”, Ajay claimed.

He denied ever making a job offer to Jonas.

“I made no offer of a ministerial post as described by him, I did not make any offer to him to pay him either R600,000 cash or offer to pay him R600m in an account of his choice.

“I did not have any knowledge of any upcoming cabinet reshuffling or about ministers that may be fired – and I did not have any influence over the appointment of any members of the national executive, nor did I ever have such influence.”

The Gupta patriarch also said he could prove he was at Oakbay’s Sandton offices when this allegedly corrupt meeting took place.

Gupta accuses Madonsela of using a leading question to establish that he was the person that Jonas says he met with on October 23 2015, and whom Jonas accuses of trying to bribe and threaten him.

“I had no meeting with Mr Jonas either on October 23 2015 or on any other day,” Ajay said.

“I therefore had no discussions with him as claimed by him, made no offers of any nature to him to pay money to him should he be prepared to agree to become minister of finance, nor did I make any threats to kill him.”