Johannesburg - The controversial Gupta
brothers said in court documents on Friday that they were the
victims of a political campaign to damage their business
interests, the latest stage in a long-running controversy over
their ties to President Jacob Zuma.
The Gupta family filed an affidavit on Friday in response to
one issued by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in October linking
them and their firm to suspicious transactions.
Gordhan has said 6.8 billion rand ($501 million) in payments
made by Indian-born Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, and companies
they control and other individuals with the same surname, had
been reported to authorities as suspicious since 2012.
He has asked the High Court in Pretoria for a declaratory
judgment that he cannot interfere with decisions by South
Africa's major banks to cut their ties with businesses owned by
the Gupta brothers. Gordhan said they had repeatedly asked him
to intervene to have their accounts reopened.
Between December 2015 and April 2016, FirstRand,
Standard Bank, Nedbank and Barclays Africa
terminated the accounts of companies controlled by the
Gupta family's Oakbay Investments.
FirstRand said in an affidavit filed in December that
suspicions of money-laundering lay behind its decision. At the
time, Barclays and Nedbank said they would file legal
applications similar to FirstRand's.
In their affidavit, the Gupta family said the minister's
application was "riddled with factual and legal errors", and
that there was not enough information about the transactions to
conclude they were suspicious.
"The timing of the minister's application supports the
Oakbay Group's suspicions that the application is politically
motivated and is part of the minister's ongoing plan to diminish
the Oakbay Group," the affidavit reads.
Gordhan was not available to comment.
"We cannot comment on this because it a legal matter that is
before the courts," said Treasury spokeswoman Yolisa Tyantsi.
Allegations that the Gupta brothers wielded undue influence
over Zuma were investigated last year by the Public Protector, a
constitutionally mandated anti-corruption watchdog. It stopped
short of reaching conclusive findings but recommended that the
president order a judicial inquiry, which has yet to happen.
Zuma has denied granting inappropriate influence to the
brothers, and they have denied seeking it.