Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has denied receiving $5,000 (about R70,000) from a Gupta-linked account.
The allegation is contained in a report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published on Tuesday.
The report alleged that banking multinational HSBC flagged the transfer to Mkhwebane’s First National Bank (FNB) account.
The transaction allegedly took place in 2014 from an account in an HSBC subsidiary bank in Hong Kong.
HSBC reportedly flagged the transaction among thousands of others from Gupta-linked offshore companies suspected of money laundering.
Leaked emails, which were dubbed “Gupta leaks” and released in 2017, reportedly showed how the Gupta brothers allegedly used shell companies in Hong Kong to launder proceeds of alleged corruption.
The OCCRP report emphasised that there’s no indication of wrongdoing on Mkhwebane’s part.
Posting from her personal Twitter account, Mkhwebane insisted that she has never received funds from the Guptas.
She challenged the authors of the OCCRP article to produce bank statements proving the alleged transfer.
In another tweet, she appeared to agree with a comment that the article is part of a campaign to remove her from office, saying “they are busy.”
The Gupta brothers gained infamy for apparently using their proximity to former President Jacob Zuma to allegedly score or facilitate deals with the state.
A Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, is currently investigating their alleged role in “state capture.”