FORMER South African President Jacob Zuma has come under fire after meeting Ajay Gupta, one of the Indian businessmen at the centre of the country’s long-running “state capture” corruption scandal, with a cabinet minister accusing him of “showing the middle finger” to South Africans.
A photograph of Zuma and Ajay Gupta at an Indian temple was shared by Indian media this week, reigniting public outrage over the corruption allegations that engulfed Zuma’s presidency.
Around a decade ago, the Gupta brothers were accused of profiting from their close ties to then-President Zuma and influencing South African government policy.
Both Zuma and the Gupta family denied any wrongdoing. However, the family left South Africa in 2018 after a judicial commission began investigating allegations that they were involved in widespread fraud in what became known as “state capture.”
South African authorities cancelled the arrest warrant issued for Ajay Gupta the following year.
The two younger Gupta brothers, Atul and Rajesh, later relocated to the United Arab Emirates, where a court in 2023 rejected South Africa’s request for their extradition.
Addressing a press briefing on Friday, cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni condemned Zuma’s meeting with Ajay Gupta, describing it as deeply offensive to South Africans.
“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,” Ntshavheni said.
Zuma, a long-standing member of the African National Congress (ANC), was forced out of office in 2018 following a series of corruption allegations linked to the Guptas. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In 2022, the commission investigating state capture concluded that Zuma had appointed and dismissed ministers responsible for managing the country’s economy at the request of the Gupta family.
The report specifically cited the 2015 dismissal of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene after he allegedly refused to comply with the Guptas’ wishes. It also pointed to the appointments of Des van Rooyen and Malusi Gigaba, who were considered favourable to the family’s interests.
The commission further detailed an extensive network of corruption at state-owned electricity utility Eskom, alleging that key members of the company’s executive leadership were installed by the Gupta family.
Following his meeting with Ajay Gupta at the temple in India, Zuma, who now leads the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, reportedly declared that he intends to seek re-election in South Africa’s next general elections.
Reacting to the development, Ntshavheni said the 84-year-old former president “continues to show a middle finger and claim that he wants to run this country again.”
She also described it as “a disgrace” that South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal, accompanied Zuma to the meeting with Gupta.
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola subsequently announced that South Africa would launch an investigation into the meeting.
Lamola also alleged that Zuma appeared to be running “a parallel foreign policy.”
Under Zuma’s leadership, the MK party secured about 15 per cent of the vote in South Africa’s 2024 general election, which saw the ANC lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since the dawn of democracy in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the country’s first democratically elected president.