South Africa slams ex-president Zuma for meeting graft-accused Gupta

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Zuma (Michele Spatari/Pool via AP, File)

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The South African government harshly criticised ex-president Jacob Zuma Friday for meeting in India with one of the Gupta brothers accused of siphoning off millions of dollars worth of state assets.

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In a video shared on social media after last month’s meeting, 84-year-old Zuma also suggested he would stand for re-election after being forced out of office in 2018 under a cloud of corruption allegations.

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It is “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,” cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said.

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Zuma “continues to show a middle finger and claim that he wants to run this country again”, she said at a media briefing.

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The government has launched an inquiry into the visit, with Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola accusing Zuma of running a “parallel foreign policy”.

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The three Indian-born Gupta brothers built a sprawling business empire in South Africa but fled after a judicial commission started investigating in 2018 allegations that they were involved in massive fraud known as “state capture” under Zuma’s watch.

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In a photograph shared online, Zuma is with one of the brothers, Ajay, at a temple in the pilgrim city of Haridwar on the River Ganges. In a video from the meeting, he calls him a “brother and friend”.

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A 2016 graft report by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog claims the Gupta brothers paid bribes to influence ministerial appointments and plunder state organs.

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Ajay Gupta was declared a fugitive from justice in 2018 but South African authorities dropped the charges against him the next year.

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The two younger Gupta brothers, Atul and Rajesh, fled to the United Arab Emirates where a court in 2023 turned down a South African request to extradite them.

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“I decided to take a decision to retake the country forward,” Zuma says in the video, adding: “I am contesting.”

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Ntshavheni said it was a “disgrace” that the South African high commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal, had accompanied Zuma to the meeting with Ajay Gupta.

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Zuma, president between 2009 and 2018, now heads the opposition Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party.

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South Africa holds local government elections in November this year with the next presidential election due in 2029.

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AFP

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