Atul Gupta
President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane, purchased an R18-million flat in Dubai in 2015 with the assistance of the Guptas and their associates.
This is the latest revelation that has emerged from the explosive Gupta emails revealed by the Sunday Times and City Press.
This transaction, Times Media Group reported on Tuesday, occurred mere months before a letter was circulated in which the Zumas seemingly sought residency in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The apartment in question is in the Burj Khalifa – the tallest skyscraper in the world at 828.8m.
Duduzane Zuma is a stakeholder in various Gupta-owned companies.
The cache of damning e-mails between members of the Gupta family, some of their trusted lieutenants and Duduzane Zuma has brought forward fresh details on the mechanics of the Guptas’ dubious state capture strategies.
Another one of the e-mails in the large cache of documents is an e-mail from Gupta associate Ashu Chawla to Duduzane Zuma, sent in January 2016. The e-mail contains two letters apparently drafted by President Jacob Zuma, in which he seeks the blessing of both the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the prime minister of the UAE for his family to make the UAE their “second home.”
Another e-mail sent by Chawla, this time to the luxurious Oberoi Hotel in Dubai, details how Chawla apparently organised for the rental of a BMW 7 series to be paid for on behalf of mining minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
The timing of the e-mail, which was sent in December 2015, is crucial, seeing as the Guptas were at that juncture in the midst of tense negotiations to purchase the Optimum coal mine from international mining giant Glencore. Zwane, who according to some of the other leaked e-mails also travelled in the Guptas’ private jet at the time, has been accused of playing a key role in forcing Glencore’s hand in the sale of the coal mine.
Chawla also sent an e-mail to the same hotel in January 2016 in which payment for a luxury suite for the now suspended senior Eskom executive Matshela Koko is discussed.
“Sahara will pay the entire bill please do not ask any credit card guarantee from the guest at the time of check in,” Chawla wrote the hotel in relation to Koko’s stay.
The former acting Eskom chief executive, in his earlier role as the parastatal’s group executive for power generation, last year signed an Eskom document in which the state-owned power utility approved a prepayment of nearly R600-million to the Guptas’ coal mining venture Tegeta Exploration and Resources. Koko was later infamously caught on camera lying about the prepayment on current affairs television show Carte Blanche. (News24)