‘Nothing stopping SA from extraditing Guptas from Dubai right now’

The South African government has penned extradition treaties with the United Arab Emirates, a move that could pave the way for the forced return to the country of the Guptas, 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” yesterday, the government said in a statement.

“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,” it added.

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, who are among South Africa’s richest people, 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 investigation is looking into allegations that Zuma organised the systematic plunder of government coffers by the Guptas and allowed them to choose ministers in a scandal known as “state capture”.

Two of the brothers said they wanted to answer to allegations at the inquiry, but on condition they give their evidence from Dubai via video link because they feared being arrested.

But the commission’s chief, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, rejected their application to participate in the inquiry from abroad.

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 Democratic Alliance on Wednesday welcomed the signing of treaties on Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between South Africa and the UAE.

The party’s 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 that the family had been “aided and abetted by the complacent and failing ANC” to gain “unfettered access to billions in public money”.

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

She said the DA’s plan would now be to write to the speaker of the National Assembly, 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.

These sections hold that:

• (2) “An international agreement binds the Republic only after it has been approved by resolution in both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, unless it is an agreement referred to in subsection(3)”
• (4) “Any international agreement becomes law in the Republic when it is enacted into law by national legislation; but a self-executing provision of an agreement that has been approved by Parliament is law in the Republic unless it is inconsistent with the Constitution or an Act of Parliament.”

She said that nothing was preventing South Africa from requesting the extradition of the Gupta brothers and their associates while still in process of incorporating the agreements into our domestic law.

“For far too long, the Guptas have shown contempt for the law and dodged accountability for bleeding the country’s state-owned enterprises dry.

“They should not be allowed to run and hide anymore. It is time they came back to South Africa and face the consequences of their actions.”

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