Johannesburg [South Africa]: In one of the latest reports issued by the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, the three Gupta brothers have been held responsible for capturing the parastatal electricity supplier, Eskom and provoking South African natives against their former President Jacob Zuma.
The Commission of Inquiry also reported that Zuma helped the three brothers namely, Ajay, Atul and Tony in capturing Eskom, headed by former Minister Lynn Brown where billions were looted. The looting led to bankruptcy affecting the finances, especially the infrastructure. This in turn caused load shedding in many parts of the country.
The four volumes of the report also mentioned that the Guptas targeted Zuma because they were confident that if they were able to use the people of South Africa, the country, and Zuma’s own government against him, their mission of advancing their businesses will be accomplished.
Apart from using Zuma for their own benefit, the Gupta brothers had installed their own lackeys at key institutions as well. Following the order of Guptas, the former South African President even dismissed senior officials and competent Ministers at parastatal organisations as well.
This resulted in Zuma’s ouster by his own party, the African National Congress even before he could complete his second 5-year tenure as the President of South Africa owing to public demand.
“The evidence proves a scheme by the Guptas to capture Eskom, install the Guptas’ selected officials in strategic positions within Eskom as members of the board, the committees of the board and the executives and then divert Eskom’s assets to the Guptas’ financial advantage” the report read.
Presently, Zuma is fighting off criminal charges that have been pressed against him and serving a 15-month long jail term, since he refused to testify at the Commission.
“President Zuma readily opened the doors for the Guptas to go into the State-Owned Enterprises and help themselves to the money and assets of the people of South Africa,” reads the report. It also mentioned that the former South African President, “would do anything that the Guptas wanted him to do for them.”Further, the report also stated, “When one has regard to all the evidence heard by the commission, it is quite clear that the Guptas were in control of the Eskom board. The president of the country, Mr Jacob Zuma, and Minister Brown were manipulating the situation at Eskom to advance the business interests of the Guptas,”Meanwhile, the Guptas are supposedly in a self-imposed exile in Dubai. Criminal charges against them are still pending while the three brothers from India’s Saharanpur are forbidden from entering the US and the UK. (ANI)
