By Dominique Msibi*

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) today laid charges of treason against Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi.

Muthambi is involved in state capture and has been “captured” by the Guptas. Her transgressions are so serious that this merits treason charges. Charges were laid at the Brixton police station in Johannesburg.

“When the court finds Faith Muthambi guilty, this should mean a sentence of life imprisonment,” says Dominique Msibi, OUTA’s Portfolio Director for Special Projects.

In 2015, the Western Cape High Court found that Muthambi acted irrationally and unlawfully in her appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as Chief Operating Officer of the SABC because of the Public Protector’s findings against him of abuses of power, fraud and maladministration. Muthambi’s abuse of power led to the SABC’s current financial crisis, plunging it into billions of rands in debt.

The #GuptaLeaks emails reveal further evidence of disgraceful and illegal behaviour by Muthambi.

“Faith Muthambi knowingly and deliberately shared three confidential Cabinet memoranda, through emails with Tony Gupta, Duduzane Zuma and Sahara’s CEO Ashu Chawla. These people should never have been privy to any ministerial communication and policy discussions,” says Msibi.

She appointed Motsoeneng, who was instrumental in funding the ANN7 Breakfast Show, although ANN7 is a competitor to SABC and for which the SABC paid R43 million to Infinity Media, a company affiliated to Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas.

A series of emails which Muthambi sent to Tony Gupta on matters of executive policy and the scope of her ministerial powers is alarming.

The first of these emails reads: “These sections must be transferred to the Minister of Communications”. This refers to an attached document describing the statutory provisions which “must be transferred” to her portfolio, from the Postal and Telecommunications portfolio. In the emails the word “must” creeps in, begging the question: who is actually in charge, the Guptas or the President?

The second email reads: “Sentech’s signal distribution must rest with the Ministry of Communications”. Again the attached document motivates why there should be a transfer of powers and functions over Sentech from the Minister of Postal and Telecommunications.

In another email to Chawla, on a draft proclamation in the name of the President, transferring more administration, powers and functions to her portfolio, Muthambi’s words are even more strident: “See attached Proclamation that President must sign.”

Emails flowed freely out of the Ministry of Communications from Faith Muthambi, into the shady inboxes of Tony Gupta, Ashu Chawla, Duduzane Zuma and others.

Their ultimate objective? More tenders, more deals, more power, more billions out of the state coffers and into the real seat of power – the Gupta family’s headquarters in Saxonwold.

Dominique Msibi is portfolio director for special projects at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).

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