Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- 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

To contact the reporter on this story: Amogelang Mbatha in Johannesburg at ambatha@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net Ana Monteiro, Jacqueline Mackenzie