New Delhi: The United Arab Emirates has arrested Rajesh Gupta and Atul Gupta, brothers who face charges of political corruption under former South African President Jacob Zuma, South Africa has announced.The two countries ratified an extradition treaty in April 2021, but it is not immediately clear whether the arrests would lead to the brothers’ return to South Africa. It also remains unclear why the third brother, Ajay, was not arrested.“Discussions between various law enforcement agencies in the UAE and South Africa on the way forward are ongoing,” South Africa’s Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services said in a brief statement, adding that it will continue to cooperate with the UAE.The arrests, almost a year after Interpol issued a red notice last July, came as an investigation was concluded into the massive plundering of state institutions during former president Zuma’s era.Also read: South Africa Seizes $1.3 Million From Gupta Company’s Bank AccountThe brothers are accused of using connections with Zuma, who ruled from 2009 to 2018, to win contracts, misappropriate state assets, influence cabinet appointments and siphon off state funds. Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing.In 2018, the Gupta family went into self-exile in Dubai after looting billions of rands from parastatal institutions in South Africa and following Zuma’s ouster.The Guptas told the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in 2018 that they were not prepared to return to South Africa to testify after a number of witnesses implicated them and Zuma in corrupt cases.The brothers called the South African authorities ‘recklessly incompetent’ in their affidavit to the commission.A number of witnesses testified the role of the Guptas in looting huge amounts and also influencing the appointment of Cabinet ministers during the nine-year tenure of Zuma as the South African president.The brothers were also declared persona non grata by the US and the UK.The UAE ratified an extradition treaty with South Africa in April 2021, a move that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government hoped would lead to the return of the Guptas to face charges.Earlier, South Africa had also appealed to the UN to get the Guptas back to South Africa when negotiations with the UAE did not initially yield results.South Africa’s largest opposition party welcomed the arrests.“We hope that this is indeed the beginning of arrests and prosecution of those who have – locally and abroad – looted our country for years and are directly responsible for the hardships that millions of South Africans face today,” the Democratic Alliance said in a statement.However, analysts cautioned that the public should not expect a quick resolution to the case against the Guptas, as this could even take a few years while they exhaust all the avenues available to them to fight their extradition.Wayne Duvenhage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, said their investigations had revealed that almost 15 billion rands were looted by the Guptas before they fled the country.The Gupta family, originally hailing from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, first set up a shoe store in South Africa in the early 1990s. They soon expanded to include IT, media and mining companies, most of which have now been sold off or closed.(With inputs from Reuters and PTI)
