Zuma accused of allowing billionaires to pick ministers

SOUTH Africa risks becoming a “mafia state”, the secretary-general of its ruling party has warned, amid claims powerful businesses are being allowed to choose ministerial posts for allies.

Gwede Mantashe said that “no one is untouchable” in the ANC in what was seen as a thinly veiled threat to President Jacob Zuma, who has been accused of allowing a billionaire Indian family to offer senior positions, something both parties deny.

“We raised a threat dealing with corporate capture and that threat is real and we must deal with it,” the secretary-general said. “We need to deal with this; it will degenerate into a mafia state if this goes on.”

The Gupta brothers – Rajesh, Ajay and Atul – are business partners of Mr Zuma’s friend Duduzane and made headlines in South Africa after flying guests for a family wedding into the country’s main airbase, which was bedecked with flowers and fitted with a cocktail bar. This week, two respected figures within the ruling party claimed that they were offered jobs as ministers in meetings with the family. They allege the brothers asked for business favours in return. Several others claimed they were approached by the Guptas, whose business empire encompasses mining, IT, media and transport, when they were ministers.

The Guptas have denounced the allegations as “totally false”, saying they represented “just more political point scoring between rival factions within the ANC”.

The scandal, which followed on from several others to hit Mr Zuma, brought suggestions that the ANC might seek to recall him to avoid punishment by the voters in local elections in May. The opposition Democratic Alliance has laid criminal charges against the Guptas and several members of Mr Zuma’s own party have broken ranks to call for “the rotten forces” in the ANC to be ousted.