I’m too old to chase ambulances but I found myself in a strange situation on Monday.
I was told by a friend on Sunday that two of the Gupta brothers in hiding in Dubai had been arrested on Friday on the basis of an Interpol red notice. I trust the person who told me. I also learnt that a regular Gupta advocate, Dawie Joubert, had flown out from Johannesburg to Dubai earlier on Sunday. The Guptas, having helped rob the country dry, still have smart lawyers in Johannesburg.
For some reason, either flying points or deviousness, Joubert had first flown to Qatar and then on to Dubai, arriving late on Sunday night. I tried several times to contact him, both calling and on WhatsApp. He blue-ticked my first WhatsApp and then ignored the rest. I subsequently told him I would be writing this, but he didn’t respond.
Just around 11am on Monday though I got a call from a man with (can I say this?) what I assumed was a heavy Indian accent. He claimed to be calling from the Dubai police. What did I want to know and who were the people I had been enquiring about? Did I have their names, the passport details? What business did they do? I said they were businessmen and so he asked what kind of business. I said buying and selling and gave him the names of all three Gupta brothers, Rajesh, Ajay and Atul. He said he would call back in 20 minutes.
There was another call, from a different person but with a similar accent. We got nowhere. He asked me the same questions as the first guy. But I had been here before. In 2016, the Guptas, still living in Johannesburg, had had me surveilled for a few weeks and later published a lurid article online claiming I was having an affair.
When I wrote an article complaining about their behaviour they dropped a crowd of protesters from Black Land First outside my house where they chanted abuse and defaced my garage and walls with slogans.
It was extremely unpleasant. For the first time ever I had a real sense of what it might be like to not be able to protect the people I love or who are important to me. The calls from those fake Dubai policemen, Gupta flunkeys no doubt, brought it all flooding back. The best way to deal with it, turns out to be to write it all down.
As I write this late on Monday afternoon I still can’t be sure the Guptas are in jail, but I’m sure enough to be writing this. The silence is staggering. Only two brothers were arrested and I know they would be Rajesh and Atul. They are the only subjects of red notices and are named in the only warrant the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has out on them, in connection with Nulane Investments.
The R25m fraud and money-laundering case has only hooked one biggish fish so far, Iqbal Sharma, the former trade & industry official the Guptas told Malusi Gigaba to appoint as Transnet chair, but who, miraculously at the time, the cabinet turned down. The case is a sort of precursor to the Estina Dairy scandal.
Later in the day it became clear that former Jacob Zuma counsel Mike Hellens was in Dubai as well. There was clearly a panic on. Hellens doesn’t get out of bed for just anything. I called his number late in the afternoon and he answered and politely told me he couldn’t talk about his clients. I asked him where he was but he had already cut the call.
But the remaining Guptas would have been in a flat panic about the arrests. They called in the heavies in Hellens and Joubert.
Only the department of justice (DoJ) could, for the SA side, confirm the arrests. They are the central authority here. But, despite call after call, I kept being offloaded. Nothing here. Sorry, no comment etc etc. I felt like a cub reporter. Finally, when it was dark already, it was justice who conceded the arrests had been made and that SA and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were in talks about a bail hearing. Before that I tried to call the SA embassy in the UAE but the message on the phone was that power to the lines of that number had been cut off.
What is fascinating now is how the law plays out. SA may or may not have asked for the extradition of all of the Guptas. Both the NPA and the DoJ were polite but evasive about the matter. It’s important, because the arrests were carried out under the red notice and not an extradition request.
That may happen now, but the first job for SA is to keep Rajesh (Tony) and Atul behind bars while extradition negotiations happen. Hellens and Joubert are in Dubai today because there is going to be some sort of court action. Their job is to get their clients out on bail, somehow hoping the court is credulous enough not to recognise that they are a flight risk.
Will there be a South African in that Dubai court arguing the case for the country? Don’t bet on it. Judging by my day on Monday, both the NPA and the DoJ have been taken by surprise by the arrests. In fact, one official told me they would be relying on the UAE attorney-general’s office to oppose bail and to make the case for extradition. That really would be pathetic.
A retired NPA veteran held a more admirable view. “I would send the best lawyers in South Africa to keep them behind bars until we can extradite,” they said. Another issue is how prepared the NPA might be. “Ideally, you should be putting your best case forward now,” they said. “But we don’t have our best case ready.”
What they mean is that trying to extradite Atul and Rajesh on a R24.9m fraud charge is hardly convincing. That’s not even $2m. The cases that count are Estina and South China Rail (the locomotive contract) but the NPA doesn’t have watertight cases ready. It just doesn’t have the talent available to do what has to be done. It’s a tragedy.
Joubert and Hellens will, I fear, make mincemeat of the local opposition in any bail hearing. They are very good at what they do and they are better prepared than any opposition they would face. Atul, who had hysterics when the media found out he had used the Waterkloof airbase to land a planeload of Indian wedding guests in 2013, would be especially relieved.
The best SA can hope for is that bail is denied. That we get a little more time. That President Cyril Ramaphosa can get up off whatever dollar-filled couch he is resting on and lead a robust and patriotic response to these fortuitous arrests. We will never get another opportunity like this to prosecute state capture.
Now, today or tomorrow, is the time Mr President. Whatcha gonna do?
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