Suzanne Daniels: 'I Stand By My Testimony'

"I stand by what I said in Parliament... I don't want to comment outside that forum."
REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Suspended Eskom legal services head Suzanne Daniels said she stands by her testimony at the parliamentary inquiry into state capture.

"I stand by what I said in Parliament... I don't want to comment outside that forum," Daniels told HuffPost on Thursday.

She would not be drawn to comment further.

In a letter from his lawyers dated November 15, Ajay Gupta denied the allegations leveled against him by Daniels, saying he was in no way involved in former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe's pension talks. He further claimed he was not in the country during a meeting that Daniels asserts he had crashed.

"We act on behalf of Mr Ajay Gupta in his personal capacity... In [Daniels'] testimony, she made a number of very serious claims and allegations involving my client," the letter read.

The lawyers also claimed that Gupta had flown out of South Africa on July 22 and was present at an Indian festival on July 29 –– the date Daniels says she met with him at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg. The lawyers claim to have proof of the flight records and a YouTube video that shows Gupta at the festival.

Last week, Daniels told the inquiry that during a meeting -- held on July 29 this year, in an apartment close to Melrose Arch in Johannesburg -- Gupta had said he would speak to someone in the deputy judge president's office to ensure the court case over Molefe's R30-million pension payout was moved to next year.

Daniels, who was suspended from her post on October 6, said the meeting occurred after she was contacted by Gupta associate Salim Essa, who had asked her to join him for a cup of coffee.

"I met him at Melrose Arch... and we walked to a [nearby] apartment. As we walked into the lounge area, there were four people whom I was introduced to. [They were] Mr Ajay Gupta, [President Jacob Zuma's son] Mr Duduzane Zuma, deputy [public enterprises] minister Ben Martins, and a Chinese lady whose name I cannot remember."

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