A familiar refrain

THE GUPTAS have made headlines in the South African media virtually every day for the past few months. Despite the serious allegations levelled against them, none of the brothers (Ajay, Atul and Rajesh) saw it fit to respond to local journalists. They’ve even shunned the newspaper and TV station they own.

Then three days ago the BBC carried a story in which they interviewed Atul Gupta.

It was probably the first time most people would have heard his voice.

The four-part investigative series will probe Bell Pottinger, the UK public relations firm, and the business they did with the Guptas.

The company is accused of coining the phrase “white monopoly capital” and, by so doing, fomenting racial tension in South Africa.

During the interview, Atul Gupta claimed the phrase had existed for a long time and he went on to deny the authenticity of the so-called Gupta emails.

It was interesting the Guptas chose to speak to the BBC, an organisation that’s arguably closest to “white monopoly capital”.

His response to the questions were also interesting.

In between dodging the questions, the answers could be summed up along the following lines: “I don’t know, nobody told me anything, it wasn’t me.”

Sounds familiar?