adminnational key point.
“The investigation should reveal how a single family has come to wield such immense administrative and political influence in such a short space of time, which it so brazenly displays over and over again,” the foundation said in a statement yesterday.
It also welcomed President Jacob Zuma’s statement that the incident should not negatively affect South Africa’s historic relationship with India.
The foundation is led by anti-apartheid activist and struggle icon Ahmed Kathrada.
It said the “lavish and extravagant” wedding ceremony was distasteful, as it flew in the face of widespread poverty, unemployment, and inequality in both South Africa and India.
“The tens of millions of rand spent (on the wedding) could better be used on the well-being of the poor and distressed in society.”
The jet landed at the military base on Tuesday. On board were 270 guests at the wedding of Vega Gupta and Aakash Jahajgarhia, which was held at Sun City, in North West.
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe announced last Friday that five high-ranking officials and military staff had been suspended over the unauthorised jet landing.
A team of government directors general had been instructed to investigate and was expected to report back within a week, Radebe said.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that President Zuma’s administration was warned two years ago by top state security officials that the Gupta brothers could pose a threat to national security, a report stated yesterday.
A few months apart, starting in 2011, Gibson Njenje, the former head of the State Security Agency’s domestic branch, Moe Shaik, the head of foreign intelligence and Jeff Maqetuka, a director-general at the agency, all resigned after falling out with State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, the Daily Maverick reported.
The cause of all the fall-outs was apparently the Gupta family. Njenje ordered an investigation into the family’s inappropriate influence on the country’s top political leaders and government officials but Cwele is alleged to have ordered an immediate stop to the probe.
The Maverick report stated that Njenje tried to warn that the Guptas’ behaviour constituted a “threat to national security” and if allowed to continue would compromise the credibility of the state.
From then on, the relationship between Cwele and the directors-general began to sour and eventually the minister asked them to leave.
Several officials, including the chief of state protocol at the department of international relations and co-operation, have been suspended following the jet incident at Waterkloof.
Government had appointed a team of directors-general to investigate all the circumstances surrounding the incident and was expected to report back within seven working days. —Sapa/News24.
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