Zuma showing South Africa ‘middle finger’ by meeting Gupta brother – minister
News
Former President Jacob Zuma is “showing the middle finger” to South Africa, a minister in the country has said after it emerged Zuma had met one of the Indian businessmen allegedly at the heart of a huge corruption scandal.
A photograph of Zuma and Ajay Gupta in an Indian temple was shared by Indian media this week.
Around a decade ago, the Gupta brothers were accused of profiting from their close links to then-President Zuma and influencing South African policy.
Details
Both parties denied wrongdoing, while the family left South Africa in 2018 after a judicial commission began investigating allegations they were involved in massive fraud, known as “state capture”.
South African authorities cancelled their arrest warrant for Ajay Gupta the following year.
The two younger Gupta brothers, Atul and Rajesh, went to the United Arab Emirates where a court in 2023 turned down a South African request to extradite them.
Analysis
In a press briefing on Friday, cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said it was “very disturbing that a former state president openly and unapologetically shows the middle finger to South Africans who have lost a lot of money through the Gupta brothers’ shenanigans”.
Zuma, a long-standing member of the African National Congress (ANC), was forced out of office in 2018 following a string of corruption allegations concerning the Guptas. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
In 2022, a commission investigating state capture concluded that Zuma had hired and fired ministers central to the running of the country’s economy at the behest of the Gupta family.
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