Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Zweli Mkhize is ready to answer any questions in a Public Protector probe into allegations that he received a kickback in a multimillion-rand oil deal.
"He has written back to the Public Protector welcoming the probe because he believes that the truth will eventually come out because the allegations are spurious," his spokesperson Musa Zondi said on Wednesday.
Zondi added that Mkhize would also make himself available to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
EWN reported that the probe was going ahead after the African Democratic Convention (Adec) lodged a complaint, following a Sunday Times report in June that Mkhize demanded a R4.5m kickback for allegedly facilitating a loan to an oil company from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
According to the Sunday Times, a lawyer's letter dated October 2017, named Mkhize in a legal claim against Afric Oil. The letter claimed that, at a meeting at Luthuli House in 2016, a loan application to the PIC was discussed and Mkhizwe, who was then ANC treasurer general, allegedly agreed to promote Afric Oil's projects.
READ: Mkhize denies R4.5m PIC kickback allegations
It is alleged that this included providing support for the facilitation of the PIC loan.
Mkhize denied the allegations at the time and stated that, during his tenure as ANC treasurer general, he met with various companies who would brief him on operations.
"This is no way meant that my intervention was required. At no stage did I enter into an agreement to facilitate loans for a fee," he said.
Adec president Moses Mayekiso said the movement lodged the complaint on the grounds that any allegation of corruption should be investigated, given South Africa's battle against the scourge.
"We don't say the person is guilty, but we say it must be investigated," Mayekiso told News24.