Thread by @AldrinSampear

#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi says the Gupta’s landing at the Waterkloof Airforce base showed that they were “disrespectful to the President”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi says his DG told him that during every mining indaba the Guptas would (under previous ministers) host him and other DDGs at their home in CPT.

Ramatlodi put a stop to this because the Guptas were “showing their power”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi says this used to happen during “Shabangu’s time specifically”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi says the Guptas would demonstrate their power and use their proximity to Gov officials to show investors “you won’t get a mining license” if they did not corporate

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi: the Guptas has the powers to summon the President (Zuma) to their home and boast about it

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi: it’s public knowledge that Minister van Rooyen and Minister Zwane we’re camping there (Guptas home)

They were not even ashamad to say “I am a Gupta Minister, so?”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi: in the NEC we would raise this with the President that this relationship is toxic and at the end he(Zuma) would say: “those people are my friends, they helped my children when I was persona non-grata”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi ...

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi says Duduzane Zuma “demanded to see me ... it wasn’t a friendly call”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlodi says he raised this issue with the President your son must “stop calling me” and he Zuma said “kulungile mfanakithi”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi: when Ministers are appointed the Secretary General (of ANC) is there but when he reshuffles he is alone ... who is advising him?

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#StareCaptureInquiry Zondo asks if the NEC was worried what Zuma’s friendship with the Guptas was doing to him and the ANC and whether they felt helpless

Ramatlhodi: he had a strong faction in the NEC... some of them were beneficiaries of that friendship

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi during the debate of Zuma’s removal he tasked the SG “what have I done”

“He (Zuma) has auctioned off executive authority... it’s the biggest sin he has done”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says Zuma wanted 6 months before he leaves office and the NEC took a decision that they “might have to remove him by force”

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#StareCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi during the second term (starts in 2014) “something else happened” and comrades expressed their reservations.

Yesterday Mantashe also told the commission first term was OK, but second term “state capture became a reality”

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I wonder if what Ramatlhodi is speaking about "factions" if that is not the greatest threat to the ANC ... But history shows us that the factions have always been there just that this time around "there are resources"

#StateCaptureInquiry

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says "patronage was feeding this animal ... that patronage came from the top. so at least we have removed that top"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Zondo: why did they (NEC) wait until he (Zuma) was no longer President of the ANC

Ramatlhodi: there was a paralyses of the NEC ... the NEC owned up to the mistakes that the President has done and we took collective responsibility.

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#StateCaptureInquiry Zondo has essentially taken over the evidence leading here ... Adv Buthelezi is just standing there.

Zondo is clearly intrigued

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says there was two motions to remove Zuma in the NEC, but both were defeated.

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#StateCaptureInquiry Zondo: my concern is why this late (to remove Zuma)

Ramatlhodi: before it was balance of forces then paralyses (of the NEC)

(Some how reminds me of Gordhan's evidence that the modus operandi was to destroy institutions first then loot)

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#StateCaptureInquiry Buthelezi now moves on to the Eskom (Molefe and Ngubane) saga relating to the suspension of Optimum mine License

Ramatlhodi says Molefe had just joined Eskom and suspended the collection of coal from Optimum because "Glencore owes Eskom R2billion"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says Molefe agreed to open negotiations with Glencore - but that same evening Molefe called that Dr Ngubane the chairman wanted to meet

At the meeting "Dr Ngubane demands that I take all the licences that Glencore has"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says he refused because the country was experiencing outages at the time ... "there are implications here, if I suspend licenses it means workers wont have jobs and we wont have electricity"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says Ngubane then said he will tell the President (Zuma) and the impression that he got is that he was sent by the President ... Because Ngubane said he wanted to "report back to the President"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says when he met President Zuma he congratulated him on how well he managed the Department of mineral resources and then he said "I am now being promoted to Public Service and Administration job"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi: the promotion was punishment ... once I got out there a Gupta minister came in

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says in cabinet meetings Zwane and van Rooyen were boastful of their relationship with the Guptas

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi on process of appointing a DG

"No minister can appoint a head of department without concurrence of the minister of public service & administration"

He says when Zwane was appointed they brought Mr Manyi's DG application

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says he then indicated to Minister Zwane that he is unable to appoint Manyi (as DG of Mineral resources) because he doesn't not have a post graduate qualification

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi believes his axing from Public Service and administration is because Manyi had come to meet him to ask "whether there were issues between him and I"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says he was told by a former ANC service provider that Manyi had complaint to him that "I am singling him out" in the affidavit before the commission.

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says there is no bad blood between him and Zwane and Manyi

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says " I wake up in the morning and my wife tells me 'you are no longer Minister papa' " 🤣😂

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says him and Zuma are still friends "we are quite close"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi asked whether this issue around the Zuma's relationship with the Guptas was ever raised in cabinet - He says no just outside, people like Ministers Hanekom, Gordhan

He adds that "in cabinet we were very cooperative"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says the issue of the Banks closing Gupta accounts was raised Zwane, which let to the set up of the Inter Ministerial Committee

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#StateCaptureInquiry Zondo asks on the process for an ANC member to become an MP and MPL, does the process not give the party leadership power who gets on the list

Ramatlhodi says 'to some extend there is much power in the leadership"

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi says it obvious that President Zuma wanted Optimum mine for the Guptas

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#StateCaptureInquiry Ramatlhodi suggests the President should have a political advisory tool when it comes to appointment of ministers.

REMEMBER former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke had raised the concern that the President is "too powerful"

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