Inside Vavi’s legal threat that forced Shaun Abrahams to act against Guptas
The Asset Forfeiture Unit had made several requests to take action against dodgy deals involving the Guptas to the head of the National Prosecuting Authority but these fell on deaf ears.
Zwelinzima Vavi, founder of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) was influential in ensuring that some of the Gupta assets were frozen and seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit.
According to Sunday Times, Saftu had threatened to assemble their own case against the Guptas after information of how they had looted millions from state parastals Eskom and Transnet had emerged in May. This case would have been taken to court if Abrahams did not act first.
“They [Saftu] manoeuvred very cleverly to leave the NPA with few options. Essentially they prepared their own AFU case which they threatened to take to court if the NPA refused to do it. The boss [Abrahams] was very unhappy but could not manoeuvre out of it,” a source said.
“The order granted against McKinsey and Trillian is the result of constant pressure by Saftu and the good work of honest AFU lawyers and investigators,” said Vavi.
“It is the beginning of the closing of the net, but it is not evidence of Shaun Abrahams’s work … It is well known that Shaun Abrahams has been blocking this,” he told Sunday Times.
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