Pretoria: South Africa's Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, the three Gupta brothers - Atul, Rajesh and Ajay - and their associates will be charged with money laundering in the next few weeks in what will become the first state capture case to be prosecuted. Zwane will be accused No1 for his role in a sophisticated and elaborate scheme that allegedly siphoned off R220-million meant to benefit poor farmers, to fund the Guptas’ luxurious lifestyle.
Atul, Rajesh and Ajay Gupta will be accused No 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Other accused include former CEO of Gupta-owned Oakbay Nazeem Howa, Sahara Computers CEO Ashu Chawla, Oakbay CEO Ronica Ragavan, relative Varun Gupta and Kamal Vasram, the sole director of Estina, the company to which the R220-million was paid by the Free State government.
News of the finalised indictment, which is sitting with NPA boss Shaun Abrahams, comes as it emerged this week that the family have been put under surveillance by international law enforcement agencies.
NPA denies report
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has, meanwhile, rubbished the report that Zwane, the Gupta brothers and their associates are to be charged with money laundering charges in the next few weeks. "As the NPA‚ we are on record as saying that the investigations in respect of some of the legs of State of Capture investigations‚ are at an advanced stage. However‚ at this stage they are not finalised‚ therefore you cannot talk about an indictment before the investigation process is finalised… an indictment is a product of a fully investigated docket where you are in a position to say: 'These are the charges that we are going to prefer against whom these charges are going to be preferred'‚" NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said.
"We dismiss the article by the Sunday Times as really concerning and we believe that the people who are their sources‚ are not part of the investigation and the prosecuting team because those teams know exactly where we are at. We have just had briefings with them where these issues were ventilated relating to the approval of the seizure‚" added Mfaku.
He said the National Director of Public Prosecutions is not sitting with an indictment and "there is no decision to prosecute anyone"‚ adding that once the investigators completed the probe‚ they will bring the docket to the prosecutors.
The Sunday Times reported that South African law enforcement authorities have obtained co-operation agreements from the Indian‚ British and United Arab Emirates governments‚ which are said to be ready to assist when asked to by Pretoria.
