The siblings are accused of having methodically looted the state funds for almost ten years, with the complicity of the ex-president Jacob Zuma.
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South Africans no longer believed it. And yet, Tuesday, June 7, Dubai police confirmed the arrest of two individuals “among the most sought -after suspects in South Africa”: Atul and Rajesh Gupta. According to the United Arab Emirates (Water), the two brothers were apprehended on the basis of a red notice from Interpol, published at the request of Pretoria, where they are prosecuted for fraud and money laundering within the framework of a public contract. The file which earns them this arrest represents a tiny part, only, of what is accused of the Gupta brothers.
With their elder, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta have been at the heart of the most sprawling scandal of corruption since the advent of democracy in South Africa. Held responsible for the decay of the South African public power with the complicity of former president Jacob Zuma, the siblings of Indian origin is accused of having methodically looted the boxes of the State for almost ten years, until ‘To the forced resignation of Jacob Zuma, in 2018, and their flight, hitherto presumed, in Dubai.
More than money, it is the power itself that are suspected of having diverted the Gupta brothers. So much so that South Africa has created an expression to designate the scandal: State capture, “state capture”. Since 2018, a commission of inquiry has heard more than three hundred witnesses tell how railways, public electricity enterprise, tax services or the national airline have been “captured” by the GUPTA and their partners .
In one of the components of his report, whose conclusions are expected in mid-June, judge Raymond Zondo, head of the commission, describes a Jacob Zuma who has become the puppet of the Gupta, so powerful that they would have Offer posts of minister or senior public enterprises in their fair. Harranty by the Commission in 2021, the co -founder of the British NGO Shadow World Investigations Paul Holden estimates the sum of fraudulent contracts allocated to companies related to Gupta to more than $ 3.5 billion (3.3 billion euros) .
general surprise
In recent weeks, arrests related to the work of the Zondo Commission have multiplied in South Africa. With a notable absence: that of the Gupta themselves. The news of the arrest of Atul and Rajesh Gupta could thus constitute the most spectacular victory of President Cyril Ramaphosa, elected on the promise of ending the endemic corruption of the Zuma era. On condition of translating into an extradition and a trial in South Africa, which is far from being acquired. The circumstances in which the arrest of the two brothers was communicated – to everyone’s surprise – invite prudence.
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