Guptas could be forced back to SA

This comes after SA and UAE signed extradition treaties.

DA welcomes agreement, saying the family is ‘running of places to hide’.

South Africa has penned extradition treaties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a move that could pave the way for the forced return to the country of the Guptas, the wealthy businessmen implicated in massive state corruption.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha and his UAE counterpart, Sultan Saeed Al Badi, signed the treaties on “extradition and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters in Abu Dhabi” on Tuesday, the government said in a statement yesterday.

“The treaties will enable the two countries to assist each other in the investigation and prosecution of crimes through mutual legal assistance and the extradition of fugitives.”

One of the three Gupta brothers, Ajay, who now lives in Dubai, has been declared a “fugitive from justice” and is being sought by South African police over alleged graft.

The Indian-born Gupta brothers are being investigated by police over corruption allegations.

A public inquiry opened last month into alleged corruption under scandal-tainted former president Jacob Zuma, who is accused of overseeing widespread graft during his nine-year reign.

The brothers are at the centre of the probe.

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture is looking into allegations that Zuma organised the systematic plunder of government coffers by the Guptas and allowed them to choose cabinet ministers.

A former minister, a government and ex-ANC lawmaker have given damning testimonies against the Guptas at the inquiry.

Two of the brothers said they wanted to answer those allegations, but on condition they give their evidence from Dubai via video link because they feared being arrested. But the commission’s chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, rejected their application.

In April UAE authorities arrested a South African man after he filmed Ajay Gupta in Dubai and posted the clip on social media. He was freed a few hours later.

South Africa said the extradition talks with the UAE have been in the making for the past eight years.

Indian tax officials are also investigating the Gupta brothers in their former home town, as part of a money laundering probe.

The DA yesterday welcomed the signing of the treaties. DA MP Natasha Mazzone said this meant the “infamous Guptas” were “fast running out of places to hide as they can now face extradition to finally answer for state capture”.

She said the family had been “aided and abetted by the complacent and failing ANC” to gain “unfettered access to billions in public money”.

She added: “When their time was running out, they skipped the country to yet again avoid accountability.”

Mazzone said the DA plans to write to te Speaker, Baleka Mbete, to request an urgent sitting of the National Assembly so that the treaties could be ratified in terms of section 231(2) and 231(4) of the Constitution. –