Mountain of evidence validates Gupta e-mails
ARE the #GuptaLeaks e-mails real? I’ve been asked this question many times, on radio and TV, and by people who don’t usually read the news who have just begun to realise, as have we all, the true extent of the Gupta corruption in our country. The short answer is: yes. We have had enough high-profile people admit the e-mails implicating them are real, including communications minister Ayanda Dlodlo and former KPMG Africa chief executive Moses Kgosana.
Then there is the mountain of anecdotal evidence where e-mails correlate to real-world events: from the controversial Eskom-aided purchase of Optimum Coal mine to the notorious Waterkloof Air Force Base landing for a 2013 Sun City wedding.
This includes sponsored trips for cabinet appointees – like Mosebenzi Zwane’s journeys to Zurich and Dubai, and co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Dawid Des van Rooyen’s one-day “holiday” to Dubai.
Such a wealth of detail can’t be fabricated. The details in the e-mails match what happened.
The revealed details of the Waterkloof landing, in which former head of state protocol Bruce Koloane (now ambassador to the Netherlands)e-mailed military secrets to the Guptas, is rich in detail – and in illegal acts, having allegedly breached the Defence Act, SA Revenue Service Act and Customs and Excise Act.
The Gupta morass has also exposed the reprehensible conduct of global firms. KPMG allegedly signed off on R30-million of state money to pay for the Gupta wedding and, at the very least, helped avoid paying R8-million in tax.
Consultancy McKinsey has been exposed for passing Eskom work to the Gupta-aligned Trillian Capital Partners without a contract.
What is holding our police back from investigating what any South African can see are crimes?
How do you determine if this vast trove of data – 200 000 e-mails or an estimated 80GB – is real?
The longer, technical answer is that an e-mail server keeps logs of its interactions: when an e-mail was sent, to whose e-mail address, when it left, when it was received, and so on.
Most of that information is also included in the header of the e-mail. This is what we see at the top of the e-mail: to, from, date, time, subject line.
We already have that in the data dump that is the #GuptaLeaks.
Does anyone need any further clarification?
What is the burden of proof that the police would need to investigate?
So far the comments from the Hawks appear to be more concerned about who leaked the e-mails as opposed to the explosive content. That shows us how severely the police and prosecutors have been captured.
But President Jacob Zuma’s grip on power is waning, as we see from the backlash against him from within the ANC. The good news is his term as ANC president ends in December and then the country will be a vastly different place.
Toby Shapshak is editor-in-chief and publisher of Stuff magazine (stuff.co.za)