Home Affairs backtracks on Gupta status
Gigaba vehemently denied Atul and Ajay were given South African citizenship — but his department says four Gupta brothers are, indeed, South African
As Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba came under attack over comments he made about the Gupta family’s citizenship and naturalisation issues‚ the department was on Wednesday forced to admit that Atul Gupta is indeed a South African citizen. This comes after Gigaba, newly reappointed to the home affairs portfolio, vehemently denied at a media conference on Tuesday that both Atul and Ajay Gupta had been given South African citizenship. He said their application for citizenship was null and void as they had not renounced their Indian citizenship. But a day later, the department backtracked‚ saying Gigaba had been mistaken when he told the briefing on Tuesday that Atul was not South African. In fact‚ home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said Atul had been naturalised in November 2002 and another brother, Rajesh, in July 2006. “However‚ of the five [Guptas who applied for naturalisation]‚ four members of the family‚ excluding Ajay Gupta‚ were naturalised after they fulfilled the...
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