Central SA
Northern Cape’s Mentor passes on after illness─── LUCKY NKUYANE 09:13 Tue, 23 Aug 2022
The political party, ActionSA, is bemoaning the passing of its Western Cape chairperson and former National Assembly Member of Parliament (MP), Vytjie Mentor, who hails from Galeshewe, Kimberley, in the Northern Cape.
According to the party spokesperson, Lerato Ngobeni, Mentor passed on in the hospital after she was admitted several months ago. Mentor blew the whistle on the notorious Gupta brothers’ shady dealings with the government and told the State Capture Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that the notorious brothers also eyed the Northern Cape for its mines. In Part 5 of the Zondo Commission's report, Ajay Gupta is said to have conversed with Mentor about coal and told her that uranium was needed for nuclear energy and that the Guptas would soon be the main supplier of uranium for the government’s nuclear programme.
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Ngobeni has described Mentor as a true patriot who served her country even in the face of criticism.
According to Wikipedia, Mentor was born as Mabel Patronella Mentor on 19 October 1963 in the former Cape Province. Before 1994, the Cape Province was divided into the new Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and Western Cape provinces. Mentor is also said to have matriculated from the Batlhaping High School in Taung, located in the neighbouring province of North West.
In March 2016, Mentor claimed that the Gupta family, on behalf of Zuma, offered her the position of the Minister of Public Enterprises in 2010, if she could arrange that South African Airways drop their Johannesburg to Mumbai route so that Jet Airways could acquire it. She said she declined the offer, which occurred at the Guptas' Saxonwold residence while Zuma was in another room.
The family denied that the meeting took place and Zuma said he had no recollection of the meeting. In August 2018, she testified at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture. She was cross-examined in February 2019 after some parts of her testimony were found to be inconsistent. Mentor has defended her testimony.
In June 2022, Zondo said that there were too many "unsatisfactory features" in Mentor's evidence and that the meeting at the Gupta's residence, in which she alleged that a member of the Gupta family offered her the position of Minister of Public Enterprises, did not happen.
