Lynne Brown takes heat over the Guptas

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown is under fire for refusing to either confirm or deny whether she met any members of the Gupta family.

In a reply to a DA parliamentary question‚ Brown fobbed off a question about whether she or her deputy had met any members of the influential family by answering: “The duties of Ministers and Deputy Ministers are outlined in the Ministerial Handbook.”

“If Minister Brown did not at all meet with the Guptas‚ then why not just say so‚” asked DA MP Natasha Mazzone on Thursday.

“The DA submits that this response is unacceptable and is not answered truthfully and in full as Ministers are required to by the Rules of Parliament. As such I will write to Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as the Leader of Government Business requesting that he compel Minister Brown to answer fully and truthfully in this regard‚” said Mazzone.

The family have been widely accused of waging a campaign of “state capture” – a claim they deny – of key government departments for financial gain.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe recently closed an investigation by the ruling party into allegations of state capture by the Gupta family‚ saying that only one person had come forward to produce written evidence. Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas told the Sunday Times earlier this year that the family had offered him a ministerial post.

“This ducking and diving is emblematic of the ANC’s stance on rooting corruption out despite overtures that they are ‘committed’ to the fight against corruption‚” charged Mazzone.

She said that the Gupta family “seem to be getting preferential treatment on state contracts through SOEs with no clear evidence of due process being followed in the tender process.

“If Minister Brown has confidence that everything was above board‚ she would have said so because she has been quite outspoken in the past about dispelling allegations about her department.”