Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- (Updates with comment from Gupta family lawyer in final bullet.) South African Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and the Gupta family, who are close associates of President Jacob Zuma, have been linked to Parasmal Lodha, a businessman from India who was arrested in Mumbai for money laundering, Johannesburg-based Business Day newspaper reports, citing leaked emails.

• Lodha traveled with Zwane and members of the Gupta family to Switzerland in December 2015
• Zwane confirmed he traveled to Switzerland on an official visit in December 2015 in a reply to questions in parliament, after denying he had undertaken a trip to the country in January 2016 to negotiate the purchase of Optimum Coal from Glencore
• Calls and text messages by Bloomberg News to Zwane’s spokesman Martin Madlala were not immediately answered; Gupta family lawyer Gert van der Merwe was consulting clients and unable to take a call
• NOTE: Tegeta Exploration & Resources, owned by the Gupta family and a venture fund in which Zuma’s son is an investor, secured at least three coal-supply contracts with South African power utility Eskom once its takeover of Glencore unit Optimum was completed
• Feb. 12 2016, Gupta-Zuma Company to Hold Three Eskom Coal-Supply Contracts Link
• “The emails upon which these people rely for news are tampered with, not authentic and have been used in a political smear campaign against the family and the business,” Gert van der Merwe, a lawyer for the Gupta family, says by phone 
• Emails are subject of a criminal investigation following suit by the Democratic Alliance, which render them sub judice, he says

To contact the reporter on this story: Amogelang Mbatha in Johannesburg at ambatha@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net Ana Monteiro