Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has responded to allegations by former Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) boss Lucky Montana that he facilitated payments to the African National Congress (ANC), while ANC treasurer-general, from a beneficiary of a R3.5-billion rail agency contract.

Montana has detailed claims to Daily Maverick about alleged financial dealings involving the ANC, Mkhize and Maria Gomes, an Angolan businesswoman who secured a R40-million slice of Prasa's infamous R3.5-billion "tall trains" contract in 2013 and 2014.

Montana claimed that he and Mkhize regularly met with Gomes at her house in Johannesburg in the period after Prasa had awarded the controversial locomotives contract to Swifambo Rail Leasing.

But on Tuesday, Mkhize's spokesperson, Lwazi Manzi, said Mkhize and the ANC previously issued statements on the matter, denying the allegations that it had appointed individuals to receive and channel monies on behalf of the ANC, flowing from the Prasa Swifambo tender.

"In fact, in February 2018, Dr Mkhize also provided a statement to the public enterprise parliamentary portfolio committee, chaired by Zukiswa Rantho at the time, with a statement giving a detailed account and response to these unfounded and false allegations by Montana.

"Mkhize still stands by those previous statements and it therefore serves no further purpose, in our view, for him to be mudslinging with Montana in the media instead of subjecting these allegations to a formal and independent process."

She said Mkhize acknowledged that the state capture commission had the powers to fully investigate the matters.

Mkhize must testify to clear himself

"He remains fully committed and in support of the work of the commission. He will provide whatever information and or clarity that may be required from him, as the former ANC treasurer-general, by the commission. This is borne from his belief that all citizens, including senior leaders of the society, have the obligation to account and answer to any allegations levelled against them when called upon to do so," Manzi said.

On Monday, Democratic Alliance chief whip Natasha Mazzone said Mkhize should testify to clear himself.

"That South Africa is being bled dry is no longer a shock to anybody. The extent of brazen involvement by ministers and senior politicians within the ANC is, however, very upsetting. The economic crisis, the rampant hunger and hopelessness, the rising joblessness and growing crime rates can all be directly linked to state capture and the rotten core of the ANC that is increasingly being exposed," she said.

Mazzone has also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to initiate an investigation into the allegations.