Themba Mveli James Maseko (born 27 January 1964) is a South African businessman, former public servant, and whistleblower who was the head of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) between 2006 and 2011.
[1] From 1991 to 1993 he was the general secretary of NECC, and during that period he was also a member of the Regional Executive Committee of the South African Communist Party in Gauteng.
[8] In October 2016, Maseko allegedly publicly – in a submission to a civil society panel and in an interview with City Press – that President Zuma had sacked him from GCIS in 2011 because of his refusal to acquiesce in state capture.
According to Maseko, the Zuma-allied Gupta brothers had repeatedly lobbied him to use public funds to place advertisements in their New Age newspaper.
[9] In 2018 he provided testimony in this vein to the Zondo Commission,[10] which concluded in its final report that Maseko's replacement by Manyi had been calculated to facilitate state capture by the Guptas.
[14][15] However, BLSA did not renew his contract at the expiry of its one-year term on 31 July 2018, instead embarking upon an overhaul of its communications department;[16] Maseko said that his departure was amicable.
[1] In later years, he was a member of the boards of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Corruption Watch, and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution.