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- Businesswoman Magda Wierzycka has first confirmed that she “re-leaked” some of Gupta’s leaks in 2017 before their existence was made public, claiming that the team of journalists working on them was “careless.”
- The accusation of carelessness is denied by journalist Stefaans Brümmer, a key member of the award-winning team at amaBhungane and the Daily Maverick, who says they went “extraordinary efforts to safeguard information about the leaks.”
- While Wierzycka says he only distributed the emails after receiving legal advice on how best to handle the “risks involved in the Gupta family becoming aware of them” for Branko Brkic, editor-in-chief of the Daily Maverick, his conduct was a “punch instinct, a betrayal of the worst kind.”
Businesswoman Magda Wierzycka, CEO of financial services group Sygnia, first confirmed that she “leaked again” some of Gupta’s leaks in 2017 before their existence was made public, prompting the Sunday Times to reveal the history of the close and sometimes corrupt relationship between the Gupta business empire, government officials and private companies.
The revelations contained in the huge cache of leaked emails contributed to the Guptas shutting down their businesses in South Africa and fleeing the country, as well as the implosion of the famous UK public relations firm, Bell Pottinger, which collapsed after they her clients abandoned her after emails discovered that she tried to stoke a racial division campaign on behalf of the Guptas. The leaked emails also possibly played a role in the downfall of former President Jacob Zuma.
While the email cache was originally leaked by two whistleblowers to Branko Brkic, editor-in-chief of the Daily Maverick in April 2017, it was the Sunday Times that released the story of the leaks in late May of that year.
Brkic, journalists from the Daily Maverick, and colleagues from the investigative journalism group amaBhungane, with whom Brkic partnered to verify, analyze and cover the scoop, were shocked when the Sunday Times wrote a series of articles based on the emails from the May 28, 2017, as it meant that someone within their circle must have “re-filtered” some of the emails.
A second filter
Wierzycka, who had written opinion pieces for the Daily Maverick, had been approached from the beginning to provide financial support for the safe passage of whistleblowers out of South Africa *. But the relationship between the journalists and their original financial backer began to deteriorate.
Now, Wierzycka has publicly confirmed for the first time that he redistributed some of the emails.
Your reason? She says she was trying to keep everyone safe. The team of journalists who had received the initial cache of emails had become “very careless with the information,” he told Fin24.
“Rumors began to circulate about GuptaLeaks outside of their circle, putting everyone involved at risk.”
This “second leak” is different from the original two whistleblower leak. Their identities have been kept secret due to security fears. It is understood that they are in a foreign place, having been removed from SA.
Wierzycka said he feared what would happen if the Guptas, who were still in South Africa at the time, had found out about the leaks. “The legal advice was to release the information to the public as soon as possible to protect everyone involved. I acted on that advice.”
The identity and rationale of the second leaker were long a mystery, until journalism professor and former Weekly Mail editor Anton Harber named Wierzycka in his 2020 book. So for the record. But the Sygnia CEO did not confirm at the time that she was the one who had leaked Harber on the record. His chapter on her was called “Betrayal.”
The key behind the rift between Wierzycka and reporters, Harber told Fin24, were incompatible views on how the leaks should be used.
“The crux of that disagreement, as I understand it, was that she really wanted a political strategy,” Harber said. The journalists, for their part, “were not interested in political strategy.”
“They felt it was their job to publish as effectively as possible.”
Confidential
Wierzycka’s reasoning for distributing the emails does not square with journalist Stefaans Brümmer, who was intricately involved in writing about the leaks from an early stage.
“It is a common cause that Magda appropriated our leaks without our knowledge and distributed them to others,” Brümmer told Fin24.
“It is true that Magda was brought in to fund the safety of the whistleblowers. However, when she retired, she had covered only a fraction of the costs of reestablishing them and their families abroad,” he said.
“Our team did everything possible to safeguard the information about the leaks. But not all role players were under our control. The risks had to be and were managed in consultation with the whistleblowers.
“The fact that the whistleblowers themselves were still in the country and, like us, caught off guard when the leaks first reached the public domain through Magda, belies their claim that she was motivated by the safety of those affected. “.
Meanwhile, Sygnia’s CEO maintains she was under the impression that the whistleblowers had left South Africa when she leaked the leaks again.
“A date was agreed for the complainant to leave South Africa and the money requested of me was requested under the auspices of removing the complainant from South Africa within two weeks due to security concerns,” he told Fin24. “At the time I released GuptaLeaks, I was convinced that the whistleblower had left South Africa as agreed.”
‘Bowel stroke’
For Brkic, his conduct was “a punch to the stomach, a betrayal of the worst kind.”
“The whistleblowers were put in grave danger because of that,” he said. According to Brkic, his actions “almost prevented the South African public from really understanding the depth of the state capture.”
The Sunday Times article had spoiled the team’s plans to travel to Ireland to fix the leaks. With the story published, they had to rush to start publishing.
“What was supposed to be a research project of the highest importance could have turned into a career that would have greatly diminished the public’s understanding of the Gupta / Zuma era due to his actions,” he said.
“Fortunately, we reacted by publishing more than 80 exhibits of which we are extremely proud and for which we have received numerous research awards, including the Global Shining Path Award 2020/2021.”
* News 24 United with amaBhungane and Daily Maverick to cover the leaks.
* This article has been updated to clarify that Wierzycka was contacted to provide financial support for the safe passage of whistleblowers out of South Africa.
