NightTalk withGushwell Brooks

Deputy Editor at Financial Mail, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, says Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan - when he appears before the Zondo Commission into state capture - will tell the commission how Jacob Zuma wanted SAA to buy aeroplanes in America.

The aeroplanes were going to be sold to a local organisation and then be leased back, which Mantshantsha says is a form of money laundering.

Read: 'Eskom is completely disregarding the framework signed at the job summit'

He is going to place the former president firmly on the table...

— Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Deputy Editor at Financial Mail

He is going to say he was brought back after the dismissal of Nhlanhla Nene and Des van Rooyen and still the president continued to push him to acquire nuclear power stations without due process and that the Guptas were also looking for deals.

— Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Deputy Editor at Financial Mail

He says all this information is contained in the leaked statement which Judge Raymond Zondo said is illegal and a criminal act to disseminate.

Mantshantsha also spoke about the recent Eskom retrenchments saying the parastatal is playing safe by starting on top with its senior staff to avoid conflicts with the unions.

This is a curtain raiser, you start at the top with senior managers in order for the unions and the 48 000 staff at the bottom not to say they are being targeted to fix the wrongs of the management.

— Sikonathi Mantshantsha, deputy editor at Financial Mail

The next round, and I think it will be after the elections, will be to cut jobs at the lower levels.

— Sikonathi Mantshantsha, deputy editor at Financial Mail

Eskom is currently employing over 47 000 people when it should be employing about 32 000, says Mantshantsha.

There is going to be a bloodbath which is unfortunately very necessary given the state of affairs at Eskom to date.

— Sikonathi Mantshantsha, deputy editor at Financial Mail

To hear the rest of the conversation with Sikonathi Mantshantsha, listen below:

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Gordhan to spill the beans on Zuma wanting American planes: Mantshantsha