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DA challenges Zuma to take legal action over Dubai mansion story if false

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane says if a report in the Sunday Times about the Guptas having purchased a R330-million mansion in Dubai for President Jacob Zuma is false‚ he challenges the President to take legal action against the newspaper.

Noting that the Presidency had wasted no time in releasing a statement calling the claim “a fabrication”‚ Maimane said the claims made in the article were not trivial and went to the very nub of state capture by what he referred to as the “notorious” Gupta family.

“The allegations are serious‚ and cannot simply be dismissed via a press release.

“Therefore if the story is in fact false – as the Presidency claims – the DA challenges the President to take legal action against the newspaper for publishing false and defamatory information about him and his good friends‚ the Gupta brothers‚” Maimane said.

“If Jacob Zuma has nothing to hide‚ then he must proceed with legal action in this matter. That way‚ evidence can be brought from either side‚ and the people of South Africa will be afforded the truth in this matter. If the President fails to do so‚ we can only assume the content of the story to be true – and that his ANC has sold this country to the Gupta family for profit‚” the DA leader added.

Maimane said he would also be addressing this matter with the President‚ face to face‚ when he appears in Parliament later this month to answer oral questions.

“Parliament in the institution to which the President must account‚ and I will ensure the people of South Africa are provided with answers to such allegations of wrongdoing.

“It has become part and parcel of Jacob Zuma’s presidency to deny involvement in hugely controversial and potentially corrupt matters‚ only for it to emerge later that the President had in fact been intimately involved. This occurred in the Nkandla scandal‚ where Zuma denied any knowledge or involvement from the very beginning.

“The full-scale capture of our country by the Guptas must be stopped with immediate effect. We cannot allow the President to sell our country to the highest bidder. The DA will continue to use all avenues necessary – including Parliament and the justice system – to stop this rot‚” Maimane stated.

 

 

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