Johannesburg: The latest reports of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture say that the Gupta brothers had used former president Jacob Zuma not only against the people of South Africa but also to install their own lackeys at key institutions.
“President Zuma readily opened the doors for the Guptas to go into the State-Owned Enterprises and help themselves to the money and assets of the people of South Africa,” says the fourth part of the report which was handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa by the Commission Chairperson Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
The report said Zuma “would do anything that the Guptas wanted him to do for them”, including firing competent ministers and senior officials at parastatal institutions, so that Gupta lackeys could be appointed to those positions.
The Gupta brothers – Ajay, Atul, and Tony – first arrived in South Africa from Saharanpur in India in the early 90s as freedom dawned under Nelson Mandela. They started with a shoe store and rapidly built up a massive empire that included IT, mining, and media, allegedly using Zuma’s influence.
The Guptas are currently believed to be in self-imposed exile in Dubai, with South Africa’s extradition request for them to face criminal charges still pending. They have also been declared prohibited visitors in the US and the UK.
Zuma was ousted by his own African National Congress barely months away from the end of his second five-year term as president after massive public outcries. He is fighting ongoing criminal charges of corruption and served just a few months of a 15-month jail sentence last year for refusing to testify at the Commission. (Indian Express)
