ON THE MONEY
STUART THEOBALD: Hawks should dig out case against Guptas over bid for Kumba Iron Ore mining rights
The Sishen case was a key historical marker in the construction of the Guptas’ criminal empire
The Gupta thieving strategy was clear after the family’s attempt to grab a portion of Kumba Iron Ore’s mining rights in 2009. That marked the line after which no one should be able to claim they didn’t know exactly who the Guptas were and how they behaved. Yet it has, so far, not come up in the list of cases the Hawks are developing against the family and their accomplices. It should not be forgotten among the abundance of cases being built. The Guptas and President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane acted as shareholders in Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), which was granted a portion of rights to the giant Sishen Iron Ore mine in the Northern Cape. Kumba was able to hold on to the rights after a fight all the way to the Constitutional Court. But the criminal actions of ICT have never been tested. Kumba, via its subsidiary Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC), contended that ICT had forged its application for the rights. Someone in the department of minerals and energy (now the Department of Mineral ...
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