State Capture: Norma Mngoma to return following ‘security threats’

Norma Mngoma, the estranged wife of former cabinet minister Malusi Gigaba is expected back at the State Capture Commission on Friday morning, 21 May 2021.

Her testimony on Thursday evening had to be halted after the commission’s chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, claimed there had been some security concerns. The DCJ however did not disclose exactly what the concerns were.

However, after leaving the commission, Mngoma posted a video of a police convoy and thanked them for protecting her.

Zondo could shed light on the abrupt adjournment when proceedings resume.

Norma Mngoma vs Malusi Gigaba at State Capture

Malusi Gigaba is also set to testify at the State Capture Commission, right after Norma Mngoma. Mngoma appeared on Thursday, she told the State Capture Commission about Gigaba’s several attempts to remove any trace of his links to the Guptas.

She claims at some point last year, before they split, Gigaba brought in an I.T expert to delete any information that might link him with the Guptas.

According to Mngoma, she refused and the expert left, but then the Hawks later confiscated her electronic devices, claiming they were investigating  a WhatsApp message she had sent to one of Gigaba’s family members.

When the Hawks returned to give back Mngoma’s gadgets, they instead arrested her. This was back in July 2020, and in connection with the vandalism of a R3 million luxury vehicle. The charges against her have since been dropped and Mngoma is now taking legal action against the state.

She told the commission that when she returned after spending the weekend in jail, her gadgets had been returned and some of her files had been deleted.

“I started paging through to check. They did not delete all my data, but what was deleted was everything that related to all our trips to Dubai that the Guptas paid for, and it was all the pictures of the car that Guptas gave him as a gift. And also a picture that I took at the Gupta wedding in Sun Citym,” she said.

The bulk of Mngoma’s testimony has been based on Gigaba’s questionable relationship with the controversial Gupta family.

Like several other former government officials, Gigaba’s name has come up a number of times at the commission and he is considered one of the allies to former president Jacob Zuma, who allegedly helped enable grand looting by the family.

She revealed how Gigaba made countless trips to the Gupta compound and that they were pretty much his benefactors – footing the bill for the couple’s wedding and giving him wads of cash.