Global companies snared in South Africa’s corruption scandal
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s biggest corruption case since the end of apartheid has entangled not only the president and ruling party but also some major international companies, including U.S. firm McKinsey and KPMG.
The scandal has weakened the ruling African National Congress, which meets this week to choose a new party leader who likely will become the country’s next president in 2019.
The web of allegations that has threatened to take down President Jacob Zuma and briefly sent the country into recession this year includes illicit dealings with state-owned companies and other multinational firms, including German software giant SAP and British public relations company Bell Pottinger.
The sprawling scandal centres on Zuma’s close associates, the Gupta family of Indian immigrant businessmen, who are under investigation by a parliamentary committee for influencing Cabinet appointments and leveraging their friendship with the president to land government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.