Some opposition parties have reacted with shock after news emerged that South Africa’s application to have the Gupta brothers extradited was unsuccessful.
Not only that, but that the hearing in the United Arab Emirates had taken place in February already and was only confirmed by the South African government on Friday – almost two months later.
The DA has called the bungled extradition a national embarrassment.
The party’s Justice and Constitutional Development spokesperson Glynnis Breytenbach said it’s a “disgrace and gross dereliction of duty”.
“The Department of Justice was, by all accounts, only informed of this monumental failure on 6 April,” Breytenbach said in a statement.
“This begs the question of what exactly the Criminal Justice Cluster has been doing for the past year.
Each query has been met with platitudes and hollow assurances that everything was under control.
Clearly, this is far from the truth,” she said.
Meanwhile ActionSA said it was “extremely disappointed”.
“It is extremely concerning that South African diplomats in the UAE – who are paid to advance the country’s interests – failed to duly follow the court proceedings, engage with their UAE counterparts and keep the South African government updated,” the party’s leader, Herman Mashaba said.
He said both Justice Minister, Ronald Lamola, and International Relations Minister, Naledi Pandor, have difficult questions to answer in this regard.
The Gupta duo, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, are implicated in crimes which cost the South African government over R250 billion, and billions more in lost economic growth and lost jobs.
