Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s spokesperson rounded on former minister and African National Congress MP Bongani Bongo, who was arrested this week on charges of corruption, for claiming he was poisoned after a meeting with Gordhan.
Bongo said in a television interview that he fell ill after a meeting with Gordhan and had travelled to Cuba for treatment.
Bongo said: ‘I was given poison. I was going to finalise my treatment in Cuba.’ He said his trip was cut short, as he was asked to hand himself over to the Hawks.
News24 reported that Gordhan’s spokesperson Sam Mkokeli responded: ‘That’s a ridiculously foolish statement to make. Mr Bongo must stop hallucinating. He must instead look in the mirror and see exactly what he has done for him to be arrested.
‘His statement is plainly nonsensical. He might need to get a lawyer to help him prepare a dignified defence to the official criminal charge, instead of offering outrageous fairy tales.’
Bongo, who made a brief court appearance in Cape Town this week, was released on bail of R5 000. In an interview with eNCA, he denied he had tried to bribe the evidence leader of parliament’s state capture inquiry into Eskom, Advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara.
He said he didn’t have the money to bribe anyone.
Parliament said in a statement on Friday that it noted Bongo’s court appearance, and that it would ‘closely monitor the case, taking into account the applicable rules, legislation and Constitutional provisions’.
It said Speaker of the National Assembly Ms Thandi Modise, who had ‘learned of the development this [Friday] morning’, had ‘yet to be formally and fully briefed about the case’.