SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS

Zille took donations from Guptas: ANC mayor

By Staff WriterFebruary 2, 2016

 

Under-fire Beaufort West mayor, Truman Prince has hit back at the DA, alleging that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, received money from the controversial Gupta family.

The Gupta name has become synonymous with its ties to the ANC and President Jacob Zuma.

Prince is accused of blatant corruption for writing a letter to the board chairperson of the Construction Education Training Authority (CETA), asking that he meet with a certain contractor.

“We are an ANC-led municipality, we are therefore in need of financial injection for our 2016 local government election campaign and therefore will also want to see construction companies sympathetic and having a relationship with the ANC to benefit, in order for these companies to inject funds in our election campaign process,” he wrote in the letter.

The DA has laid criminal charges against the mayor and has asked Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate his alleged abuse of office.

Prince said he wrote the letter because he believed economic transformation in the central Karoo needed to be accelerated and he wanted to make sure the poorest of the poor got an opportunity to go into business.

The mayor has since, also been accused of assaulting a female uniformed traffic officer.

Eye Witness News reported that the mayor has refused to step down from his position despite the ANC speaking out against him.  He said he is co-operating with authorities until he is found guilty in a court of law.

Prince has come out and accused the DA of allegedly receiving money from the Gupta family, although he has offered no proof. “…Ask Helen Zille why she received money from the Guptas and then she complains when other people ask for money,” he said, as reported byEWN.

Prince allegedly said that the People of Beaufort West would lay charges against Zille for receiving a ‘generous donation’ from the Gupta family.

In 2013, Zille faced accusations that she had received as much as R300,000 in donations from the Gupta family.

According to Zille at the time, while the donations were indeed handed over at the Gupta residence in Saxonwold, the cheques did not come from the Gupta family, but rather an executive in their employ, in his personal capacity.

SOURCE: Eye Witness News