JOHANNESBURG: South Africa Turns To UN To Extradite Controversial Gupta Brothers From UAE

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa will approach the UN
in a bid to extradite the controversial Gupta brothers from the UAE, where they
are in self-exile, as talks with the Emirates have delivered no results,
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said on Friday.

Although
South Africa does not have an extradition agreement with the UAE, both the
countries are signatories to the UN convention against corruption, which is
what Lamola is now pinning hopes on.

“It
is clear the UAE is not willing to cooperate with the process. We have not
really received very good cooperation… So, the National Prosecuting Authority
(NPA) is exploring other means through the UN convention against
corruption,” Lamola said in an interview with national public broadcast
station SAfm.

“It’s
a process where all state parties which are signatories to the UN conventions
are obliged to cooperate and if it’s an extradition request, to also comply.
The UAE is a signatory to that convention,” Lamola said.

South
Africa’s NPA wants to question the Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, about
their alleged involvement in billions of rands siphoned off from state
institutions through their alleged closeness to former president Jacob Zuma.

The
Guptas told the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in 2018 that they were
not prepared to return to South Africa to testify after a number of witnesses
implicated them and Zuma in corrupt activities.

The
brothers called the South African authorities “recklessly
incompetent” in their affidavit to the Commission.

Among the
allegations made at the Commission were that the Guptas informed people about
imminent Cabinet positions even before Zuma did so as President.

Zuma, who
was booted out by his own African National Congress, has also refused to return
to the Commission after he walked out during a hearing late last year.

The
former president has caused a crisis after he defied the highest judicial
authority in the land, the Constitutional Court, which ordered him to return to
the Commission.

He now
faces a possible jail term of two years for contempt of court.
Zuma has alleged that the head of the Commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond
Zondo, was biased against him.

The Gupta
family, originally from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, started their massive business
empire in South Africa with a shoe store at the dawn of democracy in the
country in the early 1990’s.

They soon
expanded this to include IT, media and mining companies, most of which have now
been sold off or closed.