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South Africa Police Raid Home of the Gupta Family, Allies of Zuma With Zuma Under Pressure, Police Raid His Allies’ Home
(about 1 hour later)
JOHANNESBURG — Heavily armed police officers in South Africa raided the luxury home of the Gupta family on Wednesday as part of an investigation of possible corruption and influence-peddling by three brothers allied with President Jacob Zuma, whom the governing African National Congress has ordered to step down. JOHANNESBURG — A day after the African National Congress ordered him to step down as South Africa’s leader, President Jacob Zuma remained defiantly silent on Wednesday, prolonging a crisis in the country and inside Africa’s oldest and most storied liberation party.
The raid, which the state broadcaster said resulted in two arrests, including one member of the Gupta family, came amid conflicting reports of whether Mr. Zuma would announce his resignation after a nine-year presidency dogged by scandal and economic stagnation. Mr. Zuma also came under pressure to resign on a new front, as the police raided the residence in Johannesburg of the Guptas, a family with wide-ranging business interests and close ties to one of the president’s sons and his political allies.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said that Mr. Zuma would speak publicly Wednesday morning, and the news media gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of the national government in anticipation of an announcement. Mr. Zuma’s office said that there was no “official communication” that an address would be given. Local news outlets reported that three people, including a member of the family, had been arrested as part of a new police inquiry into influence-peddling.
The raid on the Gupta compound is a drastic escalation in pressure on Mr. Zuma and those close to him who have been accused of misusing state resources. Members of the family are accused by South Africa’s top anti-corruption watchdog of influence-peddling and swaying the appointment of cabinet ministers. On Wednesday morning, journalists started gathering at the seat of the government in Pretoria, the capital, expecting that Mr. Zuma was going to address the nation at 10 a.m. But less than hour before the address was slated to start, his office issued a statement saying that no briefing had been officially scheduled.
A dozen officers from the elite Hawks police unit sealed off a street leading to the Gupta home in the upscale Saxonwold suburb of Johannesburg, where residents applauded police officers and shouted at security guards at the compound. The developments, as well as conflicting messages from leaders of the A.N.C., deepened the uncertainty surrounding Mr. Zuma’s future and the paralysis over South Africa’s ruling party and government. It further complicated efforts by Mr. Zuma’s presumed successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president, to achieve a smooth transfer of power that would avoid widening fissures inside the party.
“Finally, something is being done about it,” said Tessa Turvey, who leads the local residents’ association. “These guys must get out of our country. They must leave us alone. They have done enough damage.” At the same time, the events of the previous 24 hours were a clear sign of how much has changed in the two months since Mr. Ramaphosa was chosen to succeed Mr. Zuma as the leader of the A.N.C., creating what South Africans refer to as the two centers of power.
On Tuesday, the A.N.C. ordered Mr. Zuma to step down, giving him no firm deadline to do so but saying the party was sure he would comply and respond on Wednesday. Mr. Zuma, seemingly untouchable just a couple of months ago, is now almost certain to lose the presidency, either through a resignation or through a vote in Parliament.
Mr. Zuma and the Guptas, a family of wealthy Indian-born businessmen, deny any wrongdoing. The police’s investigative unit — which has long been subject to political interference — is now investigating the Guptas, a powerful family who appeared to operate above the law under Mr. Zuma’s protection.
A lawyer for the Gupta family said he could not comment on the raid because he had not yet seen the search warrant. Analysts here said it was no coincidence that heavily armed police officers had raided the Guptas’ luxury compound and carried out arrests even as Mr. Zuma appeared to dither over whether to address the nation. The intended message, they said, was that those closest to Mr. Zuma, or even Mr. Zuma himself, could be next unless he acceded to the party’s order to quit, well before his term as president was scheduled to expire in mid-2019.
Hangwani Mulaudzi, a Hawks spokesman, said the raid was part of an investigation into the influence-peddling accusations, as well as a wider judicial inquiry on corruption known in the local news media as “state capture.” That order had come a day earlier, in an extraordinary moment in the history of the A.N.C., from party leaders to a president they had shielded for nearly nine years through a series of scandals and corruption charges.
“We’re not playing around in terms of making sure that those who are responsible in the so-called state capture, they take responsibility for it,” Mr. Mulaudzi said. Ace Magashule, the party’s secretary general, said that Mr. Zuma has been given no deadline but was sure to reply by Wednesday. Mr. Magashule, a longtime ally of the president, added that the party was not preparing a motion of no confidence against him in Parliament if he refused to resign.
He declined to give details of what had been seized in the raid, and did not say if the offices of the Gupta business empire, which includes activities as varied as mining and media, would also be raided. A statement would be released later, he said. But, in an indication of lingering party division, other high-ranking officials issued stronger warnings on Tuesday. Gwede Mantashe, the party’s chairman and an ally of Mr. Ramaphosa, said that Mr. Zuma had been given the chance to resign on his own.
Signs that law enforcement officers were mobilizing against the Guptas, coming against the backdrop of the wider power struggle involving Mr. Zuma, helped the South African currency, the rand, strengthen against the dollar on Wednesday. The currency has generally gained ground on any sign that Mr. Zuma might leave office. “Once you resist, we are going to let you be thrown out through the vote of no confidence, because you disrespect the organization and you disobey it,” Mr. Mantashe said. “Therefore we are going to let you be devoured by the vultures.”
The A.N.C.’s difficult position was on clear display on Tuesday. At a news conference at its headquarters in Johannesburg, Mr. Magashule — who is third in the party’s hierarchy and who has traditionally acted as its spokesman — struggled to explain why the party was asking for Mr. Zuma’s resignation.
Mr. Magashule said that the ethical challenges that the president was facing had played no role, saying, “We did not take these decisions because Comrade Jacob Zuma has done anything wrong.”
Mr. Magashule’s remarks suggested the party might be reluctant to deal head-on with the culture of corruption that was endemic under Mr. Zuma.
The reason he gave for the party’s move was that Mr. Zuma’s continued presence as the nation’s leader would “erode the renewed hope and confidence among South Africans” since party elections in December, in which Mr. Ramaphosa defeated Mr. Zuma’s preferred candidate for the leadership of the A.N.C.
Mr. Magashule indicated that Mr. Zuma was hurting the party’s electoral prospects, a point that Mr. Ramaphosa’s allies had emphasized. In the 2016 local elections, the A.N.C. lost control over the nation’s biggest cities after it was deserted by traditional supporters disillusioned by Mr. Zuma’s conduct; some party officials have since warned that it might face a similar fate in national elections in 2019.