Parliament has directed four committees to “urgently probe” allegations of state capture involving cabinet ministers.

In a statement‚ Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said that House chairperson of committees Cedric Frolick had on Thursday written to the Home Affairs‚ Mineral Resources‚ Public Enterprises and Transport committees‚ to advise them to “ensure immediate engagement with the concerned Ministers to ensure that Parliament gets to the bottom of the allegations“.

This comes in the wake of the “Gupta leaks“‚ a series of damning emails linking several high profile ministers to the Gupta family.

These include:

- Then Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba who signed off on the Gupta family’s appeal after their citizenship was denied. Gigaba has since said the appeal was like many others he had dealt with‚ and had been signed after all the information had been considered.

- Mineral Resources Minister Mosebezi Zwane‚ whose CV was allegedly sent to the Gupta family two months before he was appointed to the position.

- Several state owned enterprises have also been implicated in the leaks with information detailing how Denel director Dan Mantsha was to be chauffeur-driven around Dubai‚ how a deluxe hotel suite was booked at a luxurious Dubai hotel for Matshela Koka‚ who later became Eskom CEO‚ and how the family was approached by a board member of SAA who asked them to get him onto the board of Transnet.

Mothapo said there was no specific deadline set for the submission of the outcome‚ but committees have “been urged to begin with the work and report their recommendations to the house urgently“.

“Parliament‚ as a representative body of the people of South Africa‚ shoulders the Constitutional responsibility of ensuring that matters of major public interest are dealt with as expected by the people‚” he said.

The Democratic Alliance has been lobbying Parliament to establish an ad hoc committee to probe all aspects of state capture‚ however no decision was taken on the matter last week.