This, after Mentor claimed on social media on Tuesday that Zuma’s friends, the Gupta family, had offered her a cabinet minister position in exchange for a flight route.
Mentor’s post on Facebook, which has since been deleted, said: “But they had previously asked me to become Minister of Public Enterprises when Barbara Hogan got the chop, provided that I would drop the SAA flight-route to India and give to them. I refused and so I was never made a Minister. The President was in another room when they offered me this in Saxonworld.”
The Guptas have denied Mentor’s claim on Facebook and have dared her to make the submission in a signed affidavit.
The Presidency has said that Zuma “has no recollection” of the former MP.
The “president has no recollection of Ms Mentor and is not aware of the alleged incidents in her career that she has reportedly written about on social media”, it said.
On Wednesday the DA said Zuma’s “angazi” (I don’t know) response was an insult to South Africans.
Natasha Mazzone, MP and DA spokesperson of Public Enterprises, said Mentor served as the chairperson of the ANC caucus from 2004 to 2008 and would have worked with Zuma in the Fourth Parliament in his capacity of deputy president and leader of government business.
“Given the seriousness of the allegation, the president’s response is insulting to all South Africans who have witnessed Zuma and the Guptas capture the state apparatus for their personal gain,” said Mazzone.
“South Africans deserve more than President ‘angazi’s’ response. The president cannot simply pretend that Ms Mentor never existed. He must address these allegations with the seriousness they demand, and give us the answers we deserve.”
