A report capturing Jacob Zuma’s empire is intriguing and
compelling. The report details of how the Zuma empire has grown and how the Zuma family have connected with business ventures, directorships and
shareholdings. There is the link to criminal
activities, bad management, abuse and corporate scandals. There are ongoing investigations
against some family members relating to unethical actions. I wonder if we will
ever know the outcome. Or will the Zuma empire remain above the law and
continue to snatch all business opportunities until there is no more to take.
One of the Zuma deals that in my
opinion remains tragic is the Aurora Mine incident.
The mine was stripped of its assets (by
the directors, one being Zuma’s nephew) while the workers were not paid. The poor workers, the most valuable asset to any company who worked so
hard to earn a few pennies were treated worse than animals. How can anybody
have a clear conscience knowing that they are the reason for causing poverty,
starvation and depression.
It is not enough to have
business ventures in South Africa alone, the Zuma clan are digging them heals
into deals across Africa and at the rate the empire is growing, the Zuma empire
might become one of the most powerful, and richest empire in the world. Who
knows the Zuma empire might even supersede the Bill Gates empire.
SOURCE:
Jacob Zuma's family
empire
http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Jacob-Zumas-family-empire-20150430http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Jacob-Zumas-family-empire-20150430
Besides a lucrative government job, members of President Jacob Zuma’s
family have also scored contracts in the oil, gold, cigarette, diamond, airline
and retail industries in the five years since he first took office.
The appointment of Zuma’s 25-year-old daughter Thuthukile to the almost
R1 million-a-year position of chief of staff in Post and Telecommunications
Minister Siyabonga Cwele’s office, reported by the Mail & Guardian on
Friday, has caused an outcry.
But she is not the first family member to raise eyebrows.
Some of those with whom others have done – or attempted to do – business
include a convicted killer and a Lithuanian billionaire with links to organised
crime.
Other relatives have set up a number of
charities which give little indication of how they spend their money and
donations.
According to intensive research, it’s an empire which shows how the
family’s business interests have ballooned since 2009.
The main man
President Zuma is the founder and patron of the Jacob Zuma Foundation and
the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust. He is also the chair of the Masibambisane
Rural Development Initiative.
Masibambisane became steeped in controversy after the department of
agriculture, forestry and fisheries allocated R800?million in aid but then withdrew
from the project.
Zuma’s cousin, Sibusiso “Deebo” Mzobe, is its deputy chairperson.
Zuma’s foundations and trusts have enjoyed the support of some of the
country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, including Patrice Motsepe, who in 2010
announced a R10?million donation over
five years.
EduSolutions, the company at the centre of the 2012 Limpopo textbook
scandal, also funded the trust and its CEO accompanied Zuma on a trip to the
US.
According to its website, the foundation “prides itself on its ethics, integrity
and credibility”, and is involved in housing, education and sports development.
The whole family
Sandton-based multinational, the Isthebe
group of companies, describes itself as a “diversified family founded
enterprise focusing on investments and operations”.
Five Zumas – Michael, Edward,
Sikhumbuzo, Mxolosi and Priscilla – sit
on its board or serve in executive positions. The company says it is “seeking
and pursuing value enhancing and BEE
deals” in areas including energy, oil, exploration, mining, agriculture, IT and
engineering.
Edward Zuma
The president’s eldest son is responsible for “new business development”
at Isthebe. According to the company’s
website, he studied law after which he joined several law firms as a trainee.
But he never completed his studies.
Edward joined a range of companies after his father became president and
was at one stage involved in 34. He is now director of 10 active companies.
Edward came under fire for his business relations with alleged organised
crime figures involved in the illegal cigarette trade. A host of cigarette
bosses are under investigation by a
special SA Revenue Service (Sars) unit for tax evasion, fraud and money
laundering.
In February, City Press linked Edward to controversial cigarette
manufacturer Yusuf Kajee, the CEO of Amalgamated Tobacco Manufacturing (ATM),
who is being investigated by both Sars and the Hawks for widespread tax
evasion, fraud and smuggling.
Edward was a director of ATM until 2011. Kajee and Edward remain business
partners as directors of aspiring local low-cost airline Fastjet Holdings. Sars
is also investigating another Fastjet director, Paul de Robillard, who has been
implicated in fraud allegations and a murder plot.
Fastjet’s head office did not respond to questions about Edward’s
director’s fee. The company’s UK directors
earn between R600?000 and R930?000 a year, excluding meeting fees and share options.
Duduzane Zuma
He’s been involved in 21 companies, 12 of which are still active. When
his father became ANC president in December 2007, Duduzane joined Mabengela
Investments, Westdawn Investments and
Gemini Moon Trading 254.
And when Zuma ascended to the country’s presidency, Duduzane became a
director of several more.
Company searches reveal how much the Zuma clan has benefited from their
relationship with the controversial Gupta family. Duduzane is on the board of
JIC Mining Services alongside Rajesh Gupta.
JIC is owned by Oakbay Investments, another Gupta company. He is also on
the board of other Gupta-owned firms including Sahara Holdings and Shiva
Uranium.
Mining insiders say Duduzane’s executive directorship of Shiva Uranium
could earn him as much as R3?million a year.
He is also a nonexecutive director of Westdawn
Investments, which owns JIC Mining Services – a job that a senior mining
analyst, who asked not to be named, said could net him R1?million a year.
A former ANN7 employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
Duduzane owns 30% of the company that runs the news channel. Last year,
newspaper reports linked
Duduzane and the Gupta family to an illegal mining operation in
Mpumalanga.
Duduzane was also involved in one of South Africa’s most high stakes corporate scandals – the Sishen
saga for control of one of the country’s most valuable mineral deposits in the
Northern Cape.
The scandal involved allegations of fraud, Hawks raids on government
offices and bitter wrangling between the mineral resources department, Imperial
Crown Trading, Sishen Iron Ore and ArcelorMittal SA.
Duduzile Zuma
Duduzile Zuma was involved in 13 companies but resigned from five,
including the board of the Guptas’ Sahara
Computers. She sits on the board of Duzi Investment Holdings, which
claims to have investments in Zambia’s financial sector, Angolan housing
projects, and infrastructure development in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC).
Neither Duduzile nor Duduzane responded to requests for comment.
Other kids
Gugulethu Zuma, the daughter of AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, joined Nyenyedzi Productions and Vukani Africa Events and
Training, among other companies.
Gugulethu was cast in the popular television series Isidingo in 2009 and
It’s For Life on DStv’s Mzansi Magic in 2011.
Nokuthula Zuma also starred in the sitcom produced by Nyenyedzi
Productions, which they established with sister Thuthukile after their father
became president.
The presidential Twitter account
came under fire when it was used to promote the show. Nokuthula and Thuthukile
are both involved with Born Free Investments 660.
Brother Michael
The president’s younger brother, Michael Zuma, was involved in 27
companies, resigned from two, and is now the director of 15 active firms.
Michael admitted last November he had used the Zuma name to secure government
contracts for a company to build RDP houses.
He is still listed as an active director in
the Midway Two group, a large services company under investigation by the
Special Investigating Unit in connection with a
R1?billion police tender and other alleged tender irregularities.
Midway Two director Danny Naicker said Zuma was no longer involved and
had resigned his directorship, although he still had to sign the documents to
confirm this. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Wives
Zuma’s second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, controls an array of business
interests and is a director of seven companies. She founded the MaNtuli Zuma J
Foundation to “assist new and already existing nonprofit and nongovernmental
organisations”.
Tobeka Madiba-Zuma has varied business interests and a foundation that
bears her name. She bought a large home in Durban in 2011 in the name of the
Madiba Family Trust and commissioned renovations of almost R9?million.
Bongekile Ngema-Zuma controls the Sinqumo Trust, used in 2011 to buy a
house for more than R5?million in exclusive Waterkloof, Pretoria. Ngema-Zuma is
the founder of the diabetes charity, the Bongi Ngema-Zuma Foundation.
Nephew
City Press reported in May that Khulubuse Zuma was sitting on a R100?billion oil fortune in the DRC after
that country’s president Joseph Kabila gave him two oil concessions.
In recent years, Khulubuse became involved in 32 registered local
companies and remains actively involved in seven.
Khulubuse and his uncle’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, are directors of seven
companies, six of which are dormant, among them Aurora Empowerment Systems and
Labat Africa, which they formed to try and raise capital for Aurora.
Aurora owned two mines that were stripped while their workers went
unpaid.
A convicted murderer appeared as the alleged middleman in deals Khulubuse
tried to broker to rescue Aurora. Robert Huang was
convicted and sentenced in 1998,
but served no time. Sars and the Hawks are investigating Huang for alleged
complicity in fraud and tax evasion in a multibillion-rand racket at the Durban
Harbour.
Another Khulubuse business associate was Lithuanian-born “billionaire”
Boris Birshtein, a businessman and gold trader whose CV boasts three bogus
doctorates. Birshtein is the principal shareholder and chairperson of
investment firm Royal HTM, which he claimed was
registered in Canada but is actually registered
in South Africa. Khulubuse Zuma has been a director since 2009.
The New York Times linked Birshtein to Russian organised crime figures.
He was also accused of ferrying gold in his private jet from Kyrgyzstan to a
Swiss bank.
Khulubuse’s media adviser, Vuyo Mkhize, said his client “doesn’t possess
the capacity to conduct background checks on everyone he goes into business
with”.
Mkhize said Royal HTM never traded and is being deregistered. “There is hardly
a country on the continent that he has not been frequenting, scouring for
business opportunities,” Mkhize said.
“As a private citizen?...?he has no duty to
publicly disclose details of his business dealings.”
Jacob Zuma’s family
money tree
