Johannesburg, May 21 (PTI) The alleged role of a former South African minister to influence authorities to stop the state-owned airline to operate the lucrative Mumbai-Johannesburg direct flight came under spotlight on Friday during testimony by his estranged wife before an inquiry commission into state capture.

Norma Mngoma, estranged wife of former South African Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, in her testimony to the State Capture Commission gave details how India-born businessman Ajay Gupta, the patriarch of South Africa's embattled Gupta family accused of state capture, had pressured him into influencing unnamed decision makers into stopping the lucrative directs flights between Mumbai and Johannesburg as they wanted an Indian airline to take over the route.

“(Ajay Gupta) would say: ‘I need you to go with those people (to India) and I want to know what is the feedback on SAA (South African Airways),'” Mngoma said.

“Sometimes they would argue. I remember Malusi saying (that he could) not go on a state visit with those people. Ajay wanted them to cancel the SAA airline and put the Mumbai airline (in place),” she said.

Mngoma testified that Gigaba did go to India with her, but when the media began reporting about his closeness to the Guptas, her husband had arranged with state security staff to seize her phone and delete all the photos that she had taken in India.

Mngoma also claimed that Gigaba had taken away her passport, allegedly in an attempt to ensure that there were no records of trips to Dubai and India funded by the Guptas.

Mngoma gave detailed evidence of how she had been party to discussion between Ajay Gupta, who together with his brothers Atul and Rajesh, have been accused of siphoning billions of rands from state-owned corporations through their alleged closeness to former president Jacob Zuma.

The Gupta family is now in self-exile in Dubai as South African authorities are trying to arrange through the UN repatriation for them to face criminal charges. South Africa has no extradition treaty with Dubai.

They have consistently refused to appear before the commission to testify about their versions of the allegations, which they have denied.

The Guptas first arrived in South Africa from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in the 1990s as democracy dawned under the Presidency of Nelson Mandela.

Among the allegations made before the commission by a number of witnesses are that Gigaba played a role in providing South African citizenship for members of the Gupta family and was paid huge amounts in cash by them.

In earlier testimony, Mngoma claimed that Gigaba stashed piles of cash in a safe at their residence after visits to the Guptas.

Mngoma said that initially Gigaba “loved” visiting the Guptas at their residence, but later he became apprehensive about the relationship and even ignored calls from Gupta.

“I asked him what was wrong and he said they were putting pressure on him. There was a time when Ajay would remind (Malusi) about why he was appointed (as a minister),” she said.

There have been frequent claims by witnesses before the commission that people were called to the Gupta residence to be advised that they would soon be appointed to ministerial positions, which would surprise them as Zuma only announced these appointments later.

“There were a lot of things that Ajay wanted to do at (parastatals) Eskom and Transnet and Malusi didn't want to.

“Malusi wanted to run the Department the way that he wanted to and Ajay wanted him to run it the way (the Guptas) wanted it,” Mngoma said.

Gigaba has denied all the allegations made before the commission against him.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)