Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the radical Economic Freedom Fighters, has alleged that the Gupta brothers- Ajay, Atul and Rajesh – have been using their friendship with President Jacob Zuma to enrich themselves at the cost of the country. There were widespread criticism against the conduct of the Gupta brothers and repeated calls for the resignation of President Zuma. The Guptas hands have been seen in the appointments in big state owned companies.
The Guptas came to South Africa in the 1990s just as the country was emerging from the decades of apartheid. From small beginnings, the brothers built a mighty mining-to-media empire. The Guptas were seen as masters of a “shadow state” and the symbols of a democracy struggling with racialised economic inequality.
At the heart of the criticism of the brothers is their strong links with politicians, particularly to Zuma, with whom they have close ties even before he became president in 2009 and, more recently, with his son Duduzane. According to a recent report by a group of academics for the Public Affairs Research Institute think-tank the collusion between Zuma family and the Guptas has evolved into state capture and the repurposing of state institutions. There have been allegations that the ministers were being appointed to bring in policies to favour their business, thus undermining ANC's ambitions of a “radical economic transformation” through the empowering of the country’s black majority. Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan was fired this year by Zuma when the Treasury opposed alleged infiltration of state-owned companies. His deputy claimed last year that the Guptas offered him 600m rand ($45m) to take the top job in 2015.
The president and the Guptas deny the allegations against them. The family add that they would welcome a full investigation and that only 8.9 per cent of their group’s revenue comes from state contracts. The political attacks and public protests are taking their toll on the family and their allies, fuelling speculation that the Guptas’ grip on power may be weakening. The controversy is undermining Zuma’s plans to exit the political stage on his own terms when his mandate ends in 2019. A leak this year of some 200,000 emails from a Gupta company exposed the family’s alleged influence in more detail than ever before. The family denies the emails are authentic. But the British PR firm Bell Pottinger deemed them real enough to make an “unequivocal” apology over work it did for the Guptas, after a probe sparked by evidence in the emails.
Scrutiny of the Guptas’ international financial dealings is also increasing. The Centre for Investigative Journalism says that cash from state contracts has been washed offshore in Dubai, a claim that the Guptas have denied. Last year South Africa’s biggest banks closed Gupta company accounts. “No one’s going to clear a cent of Gupta money,” says a senior banker in Johannesburg.
Such public examination is highly uncomfortable for a family that guards its privacy behind the walls of its four-mansion compound in Johannesburg. “We come from families that do not show or expose their business to others,” Atul Gupta said in 2011. That said a star-studded wedding for their niece in 2013 showcased their taste for bling and their apparent desire for recognition in their homeland. Guests were flown in from India on to a South African government air base, again enraging taxpayers.
