Zuma’s cronies host five-day wedding just days after charges dropped
A billionaire Indian family is hosting a £5.5 million (NZ$10.5b), five-day wedding ‘‘extravaganza’’, days after charges linking members to the biggest corruption case in South Africa’s history were dropped.
The festivities are taking place in the United Arab Emirates where Ajay, Atul and Rajesh ‘‘Tony’’ Gupta have settled since leaving Johannesburg a year ago after detectives raided their mansion.
It had been alleged that the family made 30 billion rand from a string of businesses oiled by connections to Jacob Zuma, the former president, and other influential figures. Most of the money was spirited abroad.
Amabhungane, a team of investigative reporters based in South Africa, published a nine-page wedding invitation which suggested that the brothers and their guests took over the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Prosecutors announced last week that since corruption charges had been dropped against Duduzane Zuma, the son of the former president, Ajay Gupta was no longer a ‘‘fugitive from justice’’ and an arrest warrant against him was cancelled. The corruption charges were linked to the scandal known as ‘‘state capture’’, in which state institutions were allegedly stacked with compliant employees to secure tenders and buy protection from prosecution.
Zuma, his son and the Gupta family deny any wrongdoing.
This week, as Tito Mboweni, the finance minister, addressed parliament to explain a bigger deficit in the annual budget than was expected, the Guptas were hosting a ring ceremony followed by lunch and what the invitation described as a ‘‘wedding extravaganza’’ at their ornate Arabian palacethemed hotel.
The series of 14 events this week marked a double celebration as Tony Gupta’s daughter, Shubhangi Singhala, married Chetan Jain, and Atul Gupta’s son, Srikant Singhala, married Akhya Bansal. Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst, described the timing and profligacy of the Guptas’ celebrations as ‘‘grotesque’’ when South Africans faced power cuts, rising inequality and poor services after the alleged ransacking of state coffers during the Zuma era.
‘‘While we are coping with blackouts, the Guptas are living the life of movie stars,’’ Mathekga said. ‘‘They are throwing a big party.’’
The brothers, all in their fifties, were born in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, north of Delhi. Atul was the first to settle in South Africa in 1993, where he used capital of £66,000 to set up a computer firm while importing Indian shoes and cut-price fashion items.
He was joined by his brothers, who set about making powerful friends in the ruling African National Congress party. Two decades later, Atul, 50, was thought to be one of South Africa’s richest men, worth £650 million.
State capture charges against Tony Gupta’s son, Varun Gupta, who is attending his sister’s nuptials, were withdrawn by prosecutors in November.
Two previous Gupta weddings first aroused questions about the family’s influence within the Zuma administration.
South Africa’s main military airbase was, in effect, requisitioned for private jets in 2013 when a niece of the Guptas was married.
Senior officials were ordered on to the tarmac to welcome 200 friends and family of the Guptas, customs procedures were waived and their motorcade was provided with a police escort as it drove 100 miles to the casino resort of Sun City.
Two years later, a chief executive of one of the Gupta companies was nominated as the unofficial wedding planner for the marriage of Duduzane Zuma. The brothers spent £30,000 on features including a 3 metre-long floating stage in a pool and a glass marquee.
‘‘What is it about the Guptas and their weddings?’’ Mathekga asked. ‘‘To the rest of us they feel more like South Africa’s funeral.’’ –
‘‘While we are coping with blackouts, the Guptas are living the life of movie stars. They are throwing a big party.’’
Ralph Mathekga