South Africa’s embattled home affairs minister said Sunday he would not resign after the country’s public standards watchdog said he lied under oath and following the leaking of a private sex video.
“I’m not going to resign,” Minister Malusi Gigaba told the privately owned eNCA television channel, but added “I will obviously be guided” by the President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ruling African National Congress.
The country’s ombudswoman on Tuesday said the minister had lied in court while testifying last year in a case filed by a company controlled by the wealthy Oppenheimer family.
The court case hinged on whether Gigaba had approved a private terminal at Johannesburg airport for the Oppenheimers.
In an unrelated case, Gigaba, 47, last Sunday said on twitter he had been the target of extortion attempts by an opposition politician after a sex video emerged following what he described as theft by hacking.
The defiant Gigaba said he was not just simply trying to hang on to his job.
“It’s about fighting to protect my integrity and to protect my image and to ensure that I do not become a victim of devious political campaigns. I will not be trampled upon,” said the minister.
He said he would soon meet president Ramaphosa “to put my side of the story”.
Speaking to public broadcaster SABC, Gigaba added that the leaking of the video had been politically motivated.
“We (Gigaba and his wife) have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,” he said.
“I dont have a problem…. It was intended to embarrass me, to decapacitate me politically, to humiliate me and my family publicly, to embarrass the African National Congress,” he said.
Ombudswoman Busisiwe Mkhwebane has recommended that Ramaphosa take disciplinary action against the minister for “telling an untruth under oath and before a court of law”.
Gigaba served as finance minister for a year under Jacob Zuma, who was ousted as president in February over corruption. When Ramaphosa succeeded Zuma, he moved him to the home affairs ministry in February 2018.