Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the Guptas

05 February 2016 - 13:16 By Times LIVE
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Julius Malema has declared war against the Guptas, who've been in the news more than their fair share in recent years over their relationship with Jacob Zuma and his family. These are the top 10 headline-making controversies involving the Gupta family.

Watch: We will not sell SA to the Guptas over a curry - Malema's top five #Zupta quotes

The man on fire, controversial and entertaining, EFF leader Julius Malema cooked up some of his best rhetoric while addressing the media on Thursday. Watch the top 5 quotes from Malema’s press briefing on Jacob Zuma, Nkandla and the Guptas.

EFF Official Account ‏@EconFreedomZA via Twitter 

The Big Read: Who's running this country? by Justice Malala

Who appoints our cabinet ministers? If it is President Jacob Zuma, with whom does he appoint them? With the ANC deployment committee? With the ANC's top-five leaders?

Or does he do it with his benefactors, the Gupta family? If he does do it with the Guptas, as seems clear from his last two cabinet appointments, it means that he has again betrayed the 11,436,921 (that's nearly 11.5 million) people who queued to vote for the ANC in May 2014.

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Zuma's allies in revolt against Guptas (audio)

President Jacob Zuma's closest political allies this week broke ranks with the president over his close ties to the influential Guptas, in a move that has isolated Zuma and laid bare growing hostility in ANC circles to the family.

Although there have long been whispers about the family's close ties to Zuma and some of his ministers, this week Cosatu and SACP leaders went public with their growing irritation at the influence the Guptas are said to have on some leaders.

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Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko  

Minister, Eskom 'muscled Glencore to sell to Guptas'

The DA said the country's mineral resources minister and Eskom "forced" Glencore to sell its Optimum coal mine to a firm controlled by the Gupta family, friends of President Jacob Zuma.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane met Glencore officials in Switzerland ahead of the sale of Optimum to the Guptas' Tegeta Exploration & Resources in December, the ministry said on Monday.

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KOPANO TLAPE 

Gupta Air flies high

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and a delegation flew to Japan in a Gupta family jet at a cost of millions of rands.

Besides the cost, questions are being raised as to why a jet owned by a company of which President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane, is a director was used to transport VIPs.

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ANN7 mum on reporter's tweet

African News Network 7 (ANN7) would not answer questions about a tweet posted by one of its reporters that she was escorted from the company's premises.

"It is not company policy to respond to the media about disciplinary matters related to an employee," ANN7 general manager Quraysh Patel said.

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Second Gupta mine operating illegally

A second company associated with the influential Gupta family has been caught mining illegally an hour's drive east of Johannesburg, where it is developing a 50000-tons-a month coal mine on 200ha of farmland.

Tegeta Exploration and Mining, a subsidiary of the Guptas' Oakbay Investments, has been mining without permission at Brakfontein mine near Delmas, Mpumalanga.

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Pictures: WALDO SWIEGERS 

Air base used with permission for wedding jets: Gupta family

The authorities gave permission for guests at a Gupta family wedding to land their private jets at Waterkloof Air Force Base, in Pretoria, the family said on Tuesday.

"The Waterkloof [Air Base] was used as Lanseria airport could not accommodate the size of the jet chartered by the family," said family spokesman Haranath Ghosh.

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Bongiwe Gumede/Foto24/Gallo Images 

'Offensive' ANN7 billboard to be removed

The Gupta family's new television channel Africa News Network 7 (ANN7) has agreed to remove its giant billboard on the N1 highway near the Grayston off-ramp in Sandton, according to a report on Wednesday.

The South African Older Persons' Forum recently lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the advertising campaign, Beeld said, which displayed a picture of an elderly man with the words "We are not old farts. . . nah, not even our presenters".

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YouTube 

Gupta TV: Bosses from hell

No gum chewing, no sickbay, no cars - and if you fail to clock in on time, your salary will be docked. Life seems rough for those who work at television station ANN7.

A string of "worker ill-treatment" complaints was submitted by the Communication Workers Union to a channel boss at the network, which is owned by the politically connected and controversial Gupta family.

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