2.1 Gupta outcry may be plot to oust Zuma says SACPEDWARD WEST, Business Day, 8 April 2011
A PLAN to oust President Jacob Zuma during the African National Congress’s elective conference next year may be the reason behind the controversy over the accumulation of wealth by the Gupta family and their relationship with the president, the South African Communist Party’s (SACP’s) secretary-general in KwaZulu-Natal, Themba Mthembu, said yesterday. He told a joint briefing of the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) yesterday that while the SACP was not campaigning to protect business people, the Guptas included, speculation "that there are some who are on a project to replace the president and the ANC secretary-general in 2012 cannot be taken lightly". At the end of February, Cosatu commissioned an investigation into allegations that the Gupta family were plundering SA. This followed media reports that the Guptas and Zuma’s son, Duduzane, stood to benefit from the government’s massive rail infrastructure programme. This followed an earlier R9bn empowerment deal by ArcelorMittal in which the two parties were due to benefit to the tune of at least R3,2bn. It was possible the Guptas were not doing anything different from other big businesses in the country, Mr Mthembu said. "They happened to be Indian and coming to do business in SA. In the Mbeki era, nobody raised a finger at his facilitation of the Absa Barclays deal. We are saying, as the SACP, we need to look at the broader intersection of business and politics. How many political leaders have mining interests ... it’s the biggest problem in SA," said Mr Mthembu. Cosatu provincial secretary Zet Luzipo said the debate on how the Guptas accumulated wealth was relevant, but more information was needed, such as which other companies had bid for the ArcelorMittal steel deal and who the directors were. "We must be able to draw the difference between business rivalry driven by politics and genuine concerns about unfair wealth creation," Mr Luzipo said. He said another possibility was that the issue of the Guptas’ wealth accumulation could just be media business rivalry, given that the family had started a national daily newspaper in SA. He said the biggest threat "facing our revolution today" was the danger of corruption and "tenderpreneurs which are encircling our movement like vultures". -- Hasta siempre la Commandante SIthembewena Tsembeyi Socialismo o Muerte -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
