Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
11 April 2023 | 17:17 CAT

Photo credit: BBC

The Guptas brothers are free and travelling the world. This emerged when Justice Minister Ronald Lamola announced that South Africa’s extradition application for Atul and Rajesh Gupta failed on 13 February. He added that the government was only informed of this fact on Thursday. The South African extradition application failed because it did not meet the strict standards for legal documentation contained in an extradition treaty ratified with South Africa in April 2021. It was the second time an extradition application was submitted.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has labelled the Gupta extradition as a bungled process which has caused embarrassment to the nation and shows that Jacob Zuma is still in charge.

DA Shadow Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development MP Advocate Glynnis Breytenbach further said this shows that the Jacob Zuma tentacles are alive and well in the current cabinet and government.

“Despite many queries to both the Department of Justice (DoJ) and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regarding the Gupta extradition process, and somewhat tetchy responses from both, it now appears that the extradition hearing took place on 13 February 2023, and was unsuccessful,” said Breytenbach.

Meanwhile, ActionSA said it was “extremely disappointed”.

“It is extremely concerning that South African diplomats in the UAE – who are paid to advance the country’s interests – failed to follow the court proceedings duly, engage with their UAE counterparts and keep the South African government updated,” the party’s leader, Herman Mashaba, said.

He said both Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, and International Relations Minister, Naledi Pandor, have difficult questions to answer in this regard.

The Gupta duo, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, are implicated in crimes that cost the South African government over R250 billion and billions more in lost economic growth and jobs.

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