LISTEN: Mbeki’s ‘confrontational’ interview with Thuli over Absa bailout
Former public protector Thuli Madonsela conducted the interview with former president Thabo Mbeki in May last year.
Former president Thabo Mbeki. File Picture: Refilwe Modise
Madonsela, according to the Mail & Guardian, had a “confrontational” interview with the former head of state over the controversial Ciex report that was commissioned by a then newly elected democratic government of SA in 1997 to investigate, and possibly recover billions that had been looted and siphoned by the apartheid state under the premise of business bailouts, or “lifeboats”.
ALSO READ: Mandela put an end to Absa report, says former British spy
At the centre of the controversy is a provisional report compiled by the office of the Public Protector which could see mega-bank Absa being forced to pay R2.25 billion to the national fiscus for interest on an allegedly unlawful apartheid-era bank bailout that it received through Bankorp (bought by Absa), if the report remains unchanged.
The document was shelved by the government and nothing was done to further investigate the possibility that the money could be recovered. Mbeki was only one of many prominent figures to be interviewed in the investigation that has spanned five years.
https://soundcloud.com/mail-guardian/thabo-mbeki-apartheid-bailout-interview-with-thuli-madonsela
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