‘It’s just arrogance’

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation yesterday slammed the Guptas and warned that the “arrogant” family – at the centre of state capture allegations – should not get “preferential treatment”.

The Guptas, through senior counsel Mike Hellens, have requested participating in the state capture inquiry via video. They said they are not willing to come to South Africa because they fear being arrested.

Neeshan Balton, the foundation’s executive director, said the “audacity of the Guptas to ask for preferential treatment, despite being so deeply implicated in the state capture process, shows their arrogance”.

“It is something that should raise the ire of all of those who live in this country and respect not only the rule of law but the processes of justice itself.

“We cannot allow the arrogance of members of the Gupta family to make a mockery of the procedure put in place to deal with the mess that they are in part accused of causing.”

Balton said South Africans needed to remain guarded against elements in SA who want to continue “destabilising our country for their own aggrandisement”. – ANA