SA’s Gupta Bros. arrested in Dubai in USD 7 bn ‘stealing cases’
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: South Africa, where Mahatma Gandhi honed his skills in agitation for public causes, on Tuesday announced that the UAE government had arrested the Indian origin fugitive brothers, Rajesh Gupta and Atul Gupta, on charges of corruption during the regime of Jacob Zuma, the country’s fourth President (2009-2018).
So close were the Guptas with Zuma that the country’s opposition parties had nicknamed them “Zuptas”.
Media reports suggested the Guptas stole more than USD 7 billion from South Africa through their businesses.
South Africa has accused them of ‘capturing the state’, meaning using corrupt means to influence the Zuma government’s decision-making to further their own interests, the media reported.
They influenced decision-making in the South African finance ministry, ministries of natural resources and public enterprise, and also the ministries responsible for tax collection and communications.
They also influenced decisions taken by state broadcaster SABC, South African airways, state-owned rail freight operator TransNet, and South African energy company Eskom. They provided faulty computers to Eskom and hired models rather than journalists to get government revenue for their TV channel, ANN7 News.
Their ‘businesses’ in South Africa started in the early 1990s. Following the end of Apartheid, the Guptas saw enormous economic potential in South Africa and migrated there in 1993 from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.
Their political and financial clout started when Zuma became the President in 2009. They employed Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma, his third wife Bongi Ngema, and one of his daughters in their company, Sahara Computers. South African government departments and state-owned conglomerates awarded them large contracts.
The South African government officials later said they received direct orders from the Guptas to decide to further their own interests. Besides, they were accused of using strong-arm tactics to ensure favorable ministerial appointments, the reports said.
In 2016, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas revealed that Guptas offered him to make South Africa’s finance minister. Earlier, in 2010, the African National Congress (ANC) lawmaker Vytjie Mentor had also claimed she was offered the post of public enterprise minister.
Besides, the Guptas were caught in a controversy when an Airbus A330, carrying guests attending the marriage of Vega Gupta, daughter of one of the brothers, landed at the high-security military airbase near Pretoria in 2013. The Waterkloof Air Base is reserved for visiting heads of state and dignitaries, but using it to transport guests, the Guptas showed their enormous clout.
Over the years, they expanded their business interests in South Africa. They bought mines and invested in developing the IT infrastructure of several major South African companies and ministries and cut corners.
When the Guptas faced the first allegation of corruption in 2010, they managed President Zuma to sack the chiefs of all three intelligence agencies and replaced them with their loyalists, according to the reports.
In 2010, the Industrial Development Corporation lent the Guptas USD 34 million for a so-called investment in a uranium mine. They also wrested a deal worth USD 4.4 billion in TransNet, South Africa’s rail and port company, where they used the contract to secure millions in kickbacks.
