PETER BRUCE: How Helen Zille snared the Guptas
Zille may have triggered what became the Magnitsky laws to fight corruption but it was Browder who did the work
The US Treasury announcement, when it came last Thursday, was all official, devoid of the elation that followed it: “Today,” it said, “the US department of the Treasury’s office of foreign assets control (OFAC) sanctioned members of a significant corruption network in SA that leveraged overpayments on government contracts, bribery and other corrupt acts to fund political contributions and influence government actions. Specifically, OFAC designated Ajay Gupta, Atul Gupta, Rajesh Gupta and Salim Essa for their involvement in corruption in SA pursuant to executive order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.”
You can find the whole statement here (https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm789) but it is the culmination of a fantastic story that began, in large part, with the murder in SA police custody of black consciousness leader Steve Biko in September 1977...
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