SA pushes UAE to sign delayed Gupta extradition deal

South Africa will use a meeting in the United Arab Emirates this week to ramp up pressure on the country to sign an extradition agreement that could be used to extradite members of the Gupta family to face corruption-related allegations in Johannesburg.

“We have to establish through the meetings why the UAE has not signed the extradition treaty,” South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters in Pretoria on Monday. Authorities in South Africa signed their side of the agreement last year and now need their counterparts in the Middle East to do the same, he said.

South African authorities have accused members of the Gupta family of using their links with former President Jacob Zuma to secure deals to loot state-owned companies. The Guptas, some of whom reside in the emirate of Dubai, deny any wrongdoing. The Guptas became a focus of controversy in 2013 after arranging for a chartered jet full of wedding guests to land at a South African military base. The US imposed sanctions on Gupta family members in October.

Lamola, Public Services Minister Senzo Mchunu and other senior government officials are travelling to the UAE this week to attend a United Nations conference on corruption, to be held in Abu Dhabi.