Dilip Simeon's blog

The Republic Of Gupta – A Story of State Capture by Pieter-Louis Myburgh Reviewed by MARIANNE THAMM Hot off the press, investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s piecing together of the jagged pieces of the history of Atul Gupta’s remarkable rise from flea market shoe seller to being listed as the seventh richest person in South Africa, and worth around R10-billion, brings into harsh focus what can only be described as the biggest official heist by private interests of the post-apartheid South African state. Apart from the millions in public funds lost to citizens, it is also the story of corrupted ethics, greed and self-enrichment. Along the way many more than our President have been drawn into a ruinous web that will take decades to fix.  Those of us who are incorrigible news junkies are well aware of the shameful saga of the Gupta family, their role in the capture of the South African state and how President Jacob Zuma has acted as a facilitator and enabler for ...

An elite South African police team has raided the luxurious home of a family of controversial businessmen accused of improper relations with  Jacob Zuma , as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party continues its chaotic efforts to oust the country’s president. The raid on the compound of the wealthy Gupta family in Johannesburg came as the ANC said a vote of no confidence in Zuma would be held on Thursday. It will be taken as an encouraging sign that Cyril Ramaphosa, the new ANC leader, will move swiftly against those associated with the corruption allegations and mismanagement that have characterised Zuma’s nine years in power. Hangwani Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the police unit known as the Hawks, said the raid was part of an investigation into allegations of influence-peddling in the government.  “We’re viewing this investigation in a very serious light. We’re not playing around in terms of making sure that those who are responsible in the so-called state captu...

Cape Town is thirsty. As its dams dry to acrid desert, negotiation of everyday tasks are fraught. How many litres to shower? How long to let the waste stink before the flush? Yet it is the negotiations over a more far-reaching stink which asphyxiate South Africa.  Jacob Zuma , the almost comically corrupt President, faces recall and resignation as the leader of a nation which was once the great hope of Africa. As he begs, bargains and plots his way to remain safe from the 783 – and counting – charges of corruption within the cocoon of the presidency, his time finally appears to have run out.  ANC  Secretary General Ace Magashule announced on Tuesday that Zuma has been recalled by the powerful ANC National Executive Committee, as has one of his predecessors, Thabo Mbeki. (Mbeki’s ousting was puppeteered by none other than Zuma himself.) His recall was confirmed as the ANC parliamentary caucus has scheduled a vote of no confidence to remov...

(Initial publication: Bulletin & Record, Zambia) The South African political scene is becoming increasingly bizarre; reporting reality here can often seem like satire of the most extreme sort. Take the traditional king of one of the largest local tribes, the abaThembu, one of whose nobles is none other than Nelson Mandela. King Bulelekhaya Dalinyebo who openly smokes marijuana, is still out of jail appealing against a 15-year sentence passed in 2009 for arson, culpable homicide and assault, emerged on July 15 to announce to a gathering of traditional leaders that he had left the governing ANC to join the opposition Democratic Alliance. The son of King Sabata Dalinyebo, one of the heroes of the ANC and anti-apartheid struggle, Bulelekhaya had earlier launched a series of verbal attacks on President Jacob Zuma. Apart from referring to the president as “a hooligan who eats out of the dustbins of the Guptas”, he also claimed that Zuma only seems to remain out of prison for corru...

The tradition of sexuality in ancient Indian culture is what the attackers of Wendy Doniger’s book fear most It is our good fortune that our knowledge of Hinduism does not come from the authorized versions that Dina Nath Batra and his Shiksha Bachao Andolan wish to propagate. Neither does our collective imagination remain reined in by his fantasies about the Indian past. This large and luxuriantly complex society, even when all else has been brutally taken from its wretched millions, has its imagination intact. And, we fervently hope, for some time to come. Therein lies the challenge to our desperately needed “historical temper”. As an 18-year-old, I had read the sexually frank passages of the Rig Veda with wonder and amazement. In a small village called Sanehalli, Karnataka, where the performing arts have been vigorously patronized by Swami Panditaradhya, I recently watched, along with the people from surrounding villages, the Kathakali performance at the annual theatre festiv...

Bianca Goodson, the former chief executive of a Gupta-linked consulting firm, has broken her silence 18 months after resigning in dismay.  She has released a detailed statement and 65 annexures, charging that her former firm, Trillian Management Consulting, facilitated access to decision makers for consulting multinationals McKinsey and Oliver Wyman.  In return for this political capital, she states, Trillian was to get up to half the fees in lucrative consulting contracts with state entities. Goodson initially started preparing her statement for the expected parliamentary inquiry into state capture, but after repeated delays decided to make it public via the  Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa  (Pplaaf). It is telling that Bianca Goodson’s whistleblower statement starts with the title, “My introduction to; and exit from Trillian”. The former Anglo American manager spent just five months working for the controversial consulting firm. On ...

There are no ancient nations anywhere in the world. All nations (rāstra) are modern. Ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient India – all of them may have had great civilisations whose architecture, art, and literature are objects of admiration. But they were not nations.  To realise this truth, you will have to forget for the time being the history you were taught at school. Because it is that history, drilled into your heads from the time you were children, and constantly renewed by national festivals and ceremonies, the speeches of your leaders, and novels, films, and television serials, that make it seem obvious to you that your nation is ancient. But I will show you that this is merely a conventional idea, a  samskār . You take it for granted because everyone says it is so. In actual fact, it is not true. Your nation is not – indeed no nation on earth is – ancient. Only modern people can imagine it that way... The Indian rashtra as a nation-state has only bee...

In the midst of two opulent wedding stages, a glasshouse with flowers from Switzerland, and snow-peaked mountains in the backdrop in Uttarakhand’s Auli, all that Anil Kumar has looked at is waste – petals, plastic covers, foam, and leftover food. He’s one of the two supervisors of the Nagar Palika Parishad of Joshimath, manning a team of 20 men responsible for keeping the Rs 200 crore wedding venue at the alpine meadow clean. “Usually, dry and wet waste collected daily from all of Joshimath amounts to 20 quintal. Since the weddings, it’s crossed 40 quintal daily. Most of it is from the wedding venue,” said Parishad chairman Shailendra Singh Pawar. The weddings in question are of Suryakant and Shashank – members of the controversial Gupta family of South Africa, known for their dubious links to that country’s former president, Jacob Zuma, and who are facing corruption charges. Suryakant got married on Thursday, while Shashank’s wedding was on Saturday. A few kilometres from A...

Accusations about the manipulation of ANC election lists are nothing new. Nor, for that matter, is evidence of corruption, nepotism and the existence of patronage networks. During the decades in exile, democratic decisions taken within the ANC were, more often than not, ignored or simply over-ridden if they did not suit the leadership. Yet now we seem to be dealing with a call to go back to some mythical past where the ANC was an apparent paragon of virtue and a shining example of ethical and democratic behaviour. In the exile years that myth was the public relations image presented to the outside world in general and, especially after 1976, to donors. But the ANC, while rebelling against the vicious and corrupt system of apartheid, was itself a product of that system. Those who flocked to its broad church banner were a reflection of that society and time: romantics, revolutionaries, idealists, rogues and robbers, along with capitalists, socialists and the severely compromised. ...

Few would know that former coal secretary Harish Chandra Gupta’s travails in facing trials on various corruption charges in a specially designated CBI court and the Supreme Court on the coal scam have already taken a heavy toll on governance. In many cases, officials have been refusing clearance to infrastructure projects wherever a situation of single-tender arises. The reason is not far to seek. An impression is gaining ground among bureaucrats that if an honest officer like Gupta can be harassed for following laid down procedures, it would be unsafe for any officer to take any decision at his or her own risk. Needless to say, there are increasing cases of officials pushing the files and passing the buck on the political executive to take discretionary call.  Indeed, this is not a happy situation, say senior officials in the government of India. Yet, the story of Gupta whose honesty and integrity is vouched for by his seniors and juniors as “impeccable” is hardly getting...