An analysis of the Dark Continent must definitely begin from the south where it is not that dark after all! South Africa’s glorious days came and went with Mandela. Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Thabo Mbeki, went to Robben Island heads high and wore faces that said ‘integrity!’

 Many in the West, said and did nothing. In fact there was little the Americans could do since at the time, a prophetic Martin Luther King Jr. had started his campaign of Dreams giving a largely white and racist police force a run for their money! Over in the Atlantic where your cousins the British live, Buckingham palace considered the freedom fighter and his comrades terrorists. Iron Lady, Margaret thatcher continued business as usual with the government of P Botha.

Barely three years after Mandela was officially released from jail, the Guptas headed south. A year later in 1994, Mandela became president. That same year, the Rwandese chopped each other’s heads of and within a week, a million of them were dead!

The Guptas knew that to make it big, they had to start from South Africa where politics was moving back in the hands of blacks. They smelled the possibility of making it big since Africa, by and large, was politically volatile! This volatility would show itself a few years later when power would be relinquish to the son of Mandela’s cell mate Thabo Mbeki. The stability of South Africa is important first for the region but also for the whole of Africa. Look at its neighbors: Lesotho (Landlocked), Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Three of these countries relied heavily of South Africa. Only Botswana could sustain itself.

The Guptas arrived with computer technology, much needed in the country. As it were, they used this business to scheme and scam South Africans. Then came Jacob Zuma. His son worked for the the Guptas. In America, there is an expression that says: ‘follow the money.’ In South Africa, follow the Guptas. They believed that with enough money they could control South Africa’s politics. They basically took over the presidency during Zuma’s tenure of office! They decided who was going to be having that position in the government. They funded corrupt politics in exchange for business deals. They are the reason for Zuma’s fall. Now the Guptas are on the run, with Cyril Ramaphosa as president. Ramaphosa promised to stamp out corruption. Let’s see how far that goes!