Militant Network Linked to Cash for South Africa's Zuma, Guptas?

In a bombshell day of testimony at the Zondo Commission, it was revealed that money from the Gupta enterprise appears to have paid former president Jacob Zuma's Arms Deal legal fees - even while the State was ostensibly footing the legal bill. It has also emerged that the Guptas made use of an international money laundering network used to finance militants and drug cartels, writes Rebecca Davis for Daily Maverick.

The Gupta family immigrated to South Africa in the 1990s and managed to expand their business interests through their alleged close ties with Zuma. The former president is accused of having "sold executive power" to the controversial family, whose ties to high-ranking officials have been examined in the Zondo Commission's probe into alleged state capture.

Former president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales are facing charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption and racketeering for a series of alleged bribes paid to Zuma through his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik during the multibillion-rand Arms Deal in the late 1990s. In 2017 a court ruled against a 2009 decision by prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against Zuma just months before he became president.

InFocus

Former president Jacob Zuma (file photo).

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