Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s name has surfaced at the state capture commission of inquiry again.
On Tuesday, a witness claimed that Mthethwa was gifted a car purchased using money from a Crime Intelligence slush fund.
Col Dhananjaya Naidoo, an ex-official of the South African Police Service (SAPS) unit, said he personally delivered the Mercedes-Benz E-Class to Mthethwa’s home in Pretoria.
Mthethwa was police minister at the time. Naidoo told the inquiry that the vehicle cost approximately R373,000.
‘Richard Mdluli’s instructions’
Naidoo said he was acting under the instructions of former Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli when he delivered the car to Mthethwa.
However, he said Mthethwa used it for only a few months and returned it because “journalists were following him.”
Naidoo has alleged that the slush fund was misused for matters not related to crime intelligence, including bribing journalists.
Security upgrades
This is the second time Minister Mthethwa has been implicated at the inquiry.
On 18 September, Hawks investigator Kobus Roelofse testified that money from the same slush fund paid for security upgrades at Mthethwa’s private home in 2010.
He said Mdluli instructed that a security assessment be done at the minister’s home in May 2010.
The upgrades eventually cost R195 581,44, he claimed.
However, Roelofse could not say whether Mthethwa knew where the funds came from or not.
“I cannot speculate what the minister knew or didn’t know,” he said.
The minister has not yet publicly commented on the allegations.