'New Guptas' to get role in massive oil deal?

A pair the Sunday Times describes as the ‘new Guptas’ – former jailbirds Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene – are being lined up as Black Economic Empowerment partners in a lucrative deal with a Russian oil company, thanks to what it says is their increasingly cosy relationship with President Jacob Zuma. The Sunday Times claims the two convicts-turned-politicians travelled to Russia at the same time as State Security Minister David Mahlobo and a delegation from SA’s Central Energy Fund to sell themselves to Russian company Rosgeo as possible BEE partners. The state-owned entity and government officials were in Moscow to meet with Rosgeo – just a week before the R5bn gas deal was signed on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Xiamen, China, on 4 September. ANC insiders have said the pair, widely regarded as ‘the new Guptas’, have access to ‘the big house’ – Zuma’s official residence Mahlamba Ndlopfu – and are using their influence to seek favours. A senior government official reportedly told the Sunday Times that Kunene and McKenzie were introduced to Rosgeo CE Roman Panov, in the presence of Mahlobo, on 28 August as suitable BEE partners. The senior government official reportedly said Mahlobo’s presence was to ‘strengthen their credibility’ as business people.

Kunene, who has in the past worked as a PR consultant and lobbyist for mining companies, refused to answer questions about the trip or confirm a meeting with Rosgeo. Instead he reportedly threatened legal action against the Sunday Times. ‘I am not going to fucking answer . . . I am not going to answer to your agenda . . . Do you ask your boss Cyril Ramaphosa where he has travelled?’ he said. McKenzie did not deny travelling to Moscow, but denied travelling with Mahlobo and declined to comment on the purpose of the trip. The report notes PetroSA is yet to announce who the local partner will be in the Rosgeo deal, which will allow the company to conduct exploration work for the extraction of four m i l l i o n cubic metres of gas daily, to be delivered to the gasto-liquid refinery in Mossel Bay.

McKenzie says he will fight allegations that he is a ‘new Gupta’ with ‘every legal means at (his) disposal’. ‘I am not a Gupta, new or old,’ McKenzie declared in a statement run on the News24 site. ‘Being labelled a ‘‘Gupta’’ is possibly the most defamatory label that can currently be attached to a person in SA, but that goes 100-fold for anyone who is in business or politics, and I am in both,’ read McKenzie’s statement. ‘I therefore take huge exception to Kenny and I being called the ‘‘new Guptas’’. The danger of this to my reputation is so profound it risks my entire livelihood and the thousands of people who rely on the success of my businesses. I will not leave the label unchallenged.’