South Africa’s Zuma Implicated In New Corruption Report

South Africa’s commission of inquiry into state capture has found that former president Jacob Zuma was prepared to do anything requested by the controversial Gupta family, which has fled from South Africa

The fourth part of the investigations into the plots that led to the looting of South Africa’s state coffers during the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) was handed over to the presidency on Friday.

Since January, the anti-corruption commission of Judge Raymond Zondo, has been churning out the conclusions of four years of investigation and hundreds of hours of hearings on organised state corruption linked to a sulphurous trio of businessmen of Indian origin, the Gupta brothers.

The new report focuses on the misappropriation of funds at the state-owned electricity company, Eskom.

According to the report, “the Guptas set up a plan to take over Eskom” and former president Jacob Zuma was “a key player” in interfering in their favour in the composition of the board.

The former management, against whom Judge Zondo is recommending criminal proceedings, is suspected of having entered into irregular contracts worth more than €96 million (R1.6 billion) with consultancy firms.

-A coal supply contract with a Gupta-owned entity, Tegeta, worth more than €221 million  was also tainted by irregularities.

The company said it had been the victim of “immense prejudice” and said in a statement that “appropriate action” would be taken if anyone involved was still employed. Eskom, which supplies more than 90% of South Africa’s electricity, is struggling to recover from the wrongdoing, burdened by a debt of about 24 billion euros.