Videos of Mbeki and Mandela praising Gupta family divide social media

Eskom former acting CEO Matshela Koko divided social media users on Sunday after sharing old videos of former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki praising the controversial Gupta brothers.

Mbeki was speaking at the world premier of the movie Gandhi My Father, produced by Anil Kapoor and Anil Gupta, and hosted by the Gupta family in South Africa.

In the video taken in 2007, Mbeki says: “Three good things happened to me today, and I think the day will remain the best day for the year 2007 for me. The first thing was that I met the mother of the Gupta sons for the first time, Mrs Gupta. She doesn’t know that I know many things about her because Ajay has told me many things. I learnt some other things today, but I must say, I’m very very honoured to have met and I want to say thank you very much for what you’ve done, which made this film possible.”

Watch the video below shared by Matshela Koko:

This is from the archives pic.twitter.com/vA8pXluVlW

— Engineer Matšhela Koko, MBL (@koko_matshela) December 23, 2018

In another video, former president Nelson Mandela is seen congratulating the family on the very same film.

He says: “I wish to congratulate the Gupta family and Mr Anil Kapoor for producing this film that shows a new perspective of Mahatma. I wish you all the very best of the success of the film.”

On the other hand, there was this 👇🏿👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/R9uRuXqU6X

— Engineer Matšhela Koko, MBL (@koko_matshela) December 23, 2018

The videos resurfaced on social media following a detailed article by US newspaper The New York Times on the rise and fall of the controversial Gupta family.

While the article is mainly about the Guptas, and certainly doesn’t let the family off the hook regarding its alleged corruption, it also takes aim at the ANC, writing that “the main agent of corruption was the party itself”.

According to the article, while the ANC has since tried to distance itself from the Gupta brothers, their story is also “the story of South Africa under the ANC”.

The article goes on to list some of the party’s alleged crimes.

Read more: New York Times article blames ANC, not just Guptas, for state capture

The report and the videos have divided South Africans on social media, with some saying perhaps former president Jacob Zuma should not be blamed for everything that went wrong in the ANC, while others still maintained Mandela and Mbeki were not friends of the Guptas.

Others, however, wondered if Mbeki should also go to the Zondo commission and give his side of the story.

These were some of the reactions on social media:

Mbeki and Mandela also knew the Guptas

(Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde)

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