African National Congress (ANC) presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu on Tuesday denied ever attending any event hosted by the Guptas.

This after a screengrab of an email allegedly from former CEO of Guptas-owned company Oakbay Nazeem Howa to Atul Gupta emerged on social media. In the email, dated February 8, 2015, a list of ANC ministers and high-ranking officials are listed under the phrase "accepted invite".

It is unclear to what event the invitation was.

A statement from the office of Human Settlements Minister Sisulu said she wants to place it on record that she has never accepted nor attended any event of the Gupta family.

"The so-called 'Gupta Leaks' emails doing rounds on social media purporting that the minister was among the list of people who accepted some form of invite by the Gupta family in February 2015 is regrettable and should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves‚" the statement reads.

"Whoever is behind this smear campaign against the minister‚ for obvious reasons‚ is urged to desist from doing so immediately."

Sisulu, a member of the ANC's national executive committee, officially threw her hat into the ring for the ANC presidential race on July 22, when she launched her "It's a must" campaign. Addressing corruption and the "ANC's decay" are key areas of Sisulu's campaign.

She has proposed that President Jacob Zuma and others in the party accused of corruption face a disciplinary process.