Cosatu President: Guptas say they’re coming back to SA – why is he meeting them?
After their midnight flit to Dubai with a "mountain of luggage" two weeks ago, the Gupta family have kept a low public profile, but are clearly lobbying furiously behind the scenes. Their clout within the Zuma Administration was reflected in the disclosure that three cabinet ministers met with SA's Big Four banks to discuss why they closed the family's bank accounts. The ANC Youth League President popped along to the Gupta mothership to meet with the executives left behind to run their businesses. And now the head of the ANC-aligned trade union federation's president says he also met with the Guptas, ostensibly to see what would happen to Cosatu members who work for the family's teetering businesses. Such interference by senior government officials is unprecedented. And amateurish. For any rational being, it serves only to confirm the serious abuses the Guptas are accused of, including allegations of their appointments and conditions-attached offers of key posts in Zuma's cabinet. The message that Cosatu's President returned with is the Guptas have not left SA; they are simply out of the country attending a family wedding. If that's true, then they and their political allies have seriously miscalculated the level of anger in the streets of South Africa. – Alec Hogg
From News24 correspondent