The family from Saharanpur is at the centre of the most outrageous political scandal to hit the African National Congress.

When Atul Gupta, hailing from the nondescript, dusty Rani Bazar in Saharanpur, landed in South Africa in 1993 that country was still shaking off racial apartheid, and recently freed Nelson Mandela was still a few months away from becoming the first black President.

A quarter of a century later, with a sprawling business empire under its wings and several family members now South African citizens, the Gupta family is at the centre of the most outrageous political scandal to shake up post-apartheid South Africa. The scandal claimed its biggest victim on Wednesday evening: President Jacob Zuma was forced to resign after members of his own party, African National Congress, threatened to vote in favour of the Opposition’s no-confidence motion in Parliament.

While South Africa turned out to be their El Dorado, the Guptas were not kind enough to their host country. Building deep contacts within its politics, especially with the Zuma faction, the Guptas carried out what local media calls the “state capture”, where they dictated senior level appointments, manipulated state-controlled companies, received kickbacks, distributed expensive gifts including houses to the Zuma family, and finally when their shenanigans began to unravel, they hired a PR firm to unleash a campaign that tried to deepen racial divisions in South Africa.

Also Read The Gupta family: Saharanpur’s Rani Bazaar still in awe of their meteoric rise

The first scent

The three Gupta brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh — grew up watching, and later working with their father Shiv Kumar Gupta, who ran ration shops, and distributed soapstone powder used in talcum powder. Besides, the senior Gupta also imported spices from Madagascar and Zanzibar, which probably gave the family their early exposure to Africa and its possibilities.

On his father’s advice Atul landed in South Africa in 1993, after his elder brother Ajay failed to break into the China market. With some money advanced by his family, Atul started Correct Marketing in 1994, and in 1997, as the business began to flourish, they changed the company name to Sahara Computers. Meanwhile, one after the other, the rest of the Gupta family began to join Atul in South Africa.

Sprawling empire

The Sahara turnover zoomed from just over a million Rand in 1994 to almost 100 million Rand by 1997, and by 2016 Atul Gupta was listed the seventh richest South African with a personal wealth valued at Rand 10 billion (over $700 million). His place should be seen against the larger reality of South Africa: Atul Gupta is today the richest person of colour, and the list of the richest South Africans is still predominantly white.

This picture courtesy of the Gupta family shows Vela Gupta and her husband Indian-born Aaskash Jahajgarhia posing with relatives and guests during ceremonies for their wedding in Sun City, South Africa on May 1, 2013. | Photo Credit: AFP

Sahara is today a sprawling business empire, not just a computer firm. In mining sector, it has a string of companies and has interests in uranium, coal, diamonds and gold. It also runs companies for steel fabrication for mining, engineering and manufacturing parts for armoured vehicles. As their ambitions grew and links to the Zuma regime deepened, the Guptas got into the media in a big way. Their newspaper The New Age, launched in 2010, is unabashedly pro-Zuma. In 2013, they launched a news channel, ANN7, which too has the same political slant.

The Guptas today live in the sprawling Sahara Estate in Saxonwold, Johannesburg with at least four mansions, and also have houses in Cape Town, Dubai, and elsewhere. They also have extensive interests in Switzerland and other tax havens.

They carefully cultivated the Zuma family as they began to grow in business, from their first meeting with the then vice-president Zuma in 2003. The Guptas extended support to Zuma in his power struggle with the then president Thabo Mbeki.

Zuma’s wife, son and daughter have worked for the Gupta family at various times. And son Duduzane Zuma became a business partner too.

In 2016, details began to spill out about the Gupta family’s business benefits from the Zuma ties. Some called in the “shadow government”, others called it the “state capture.” The story was simple — the Gupta family had virtually taken over key functions of the State, manipulating government contracts, appointing senior functionaries, distributing kickbacks, showering gifts on the President and others.

In all these, the Guptas never forgot India. In the summer of 2013, they put up a grand show, lining up several Indian VVIPs for a wedding in the family. A Jet Airways Airbus A330 landed on April 30, 2013 in a South African Air Force base, scandalising the country and showing off the influence of these smalltime traders from Saharanpur in the nascent democracy. Whenever they could, the Guptas flaunted their friendship with politicians, film stars, cricket legends, and other who’s who of Indian public life.

They also virtually captured the Bank of Baroda’s operations in South Africa to turn into a virtual private entity with no due diligence.