He also attempted to influence a government official to irregularly award state contracts to this controversial family.

These are the inferences the Public Protector put to Van Rooyen in her letter detailing her allegations, observations and findings to him, following her investigations into alleged state capture by the controversial family. As a member of cabinet, and person against whom she was likely to make an adverse finding, Madonsela wrote this letter to inform him of her potential findings, and to give him an opportunity to respond to the allegations against him.

According to the Public Protector Act, the content of this letter is meant to be confidential, but in an apparent error of judgement, Van Rooyen included it in his urgent court application to prevent Madonsela from releasing her final report today. This ultimately placed the documents in the public domain.

In the documents, Madonsela clearly outlines the allegations against Van Rooyen.

It is alleged that the Gupta family had known about Van Rooyen's appointment as finance minister in December last year, upon the axing of Nhlanhla Nene, beforehand and that he was a frequent visitor to the family's Saxonworld compound. He also allegedly reported for his first day in his weekend stint as finance minister, in the company of Mrs Ian Whitley and Mohammed Bobat, known Gupta associates.

Van Rooyen had been given till 12 October to respond to the allegations against him, and to Madonsela's conclusion that he had violated Section 2 of the Executive Members Ethics Act, by compromising the integrity and ethics of his office andusing his position to unfairly benefit a party.

No answers, however, were forthcoming. Van Rooyen, as well as President Jacob Zuma, today rushed to court to block Madonsela from releasing her findings to the public on this, her last day in office.

Madonsela agreed to hold back the report and a court date has been set for 1 November in order to hear arguments on why the report should not be released.

Though Madonsela has not been barred from releasing the report, she responded to a question during her farewell media briefing on a potential leak thereof, with what appeared to be a jab at those accused of involvement in state capture.

"Just because we are dealing with underhanded people," she said, "that doesn't mean you yourself must become underhanded." Ever the diplomat, she later denied that this comment was targeted at either Van Rooyen or PresidentZuma.

Though the letter to Van Rooyen was not the final report, it gives a good indication of what it may contain. It also doesn't bode well for the president, or the Gupta family, who also this week had their attorneys send Madonsela a letter, warning that releasing the report would be at her "own peril".

The report has been handed over to the Speaker of the National Assembly for preservation.

OFM News