Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba wants the Guptas to answer in court for their alleged racial slurs against black South Africans, says a BusinessLIVE report. Mashaba said he had written an open letter on 11 June to NDPP Shaun Abrahams‚ giving him 60 days to take action against the Guptas after disclosures of their corrupt activities and alleged racist behaviour towards black South Africans.

‘To date I have received no response from him or the NPA. To me‚ it is clear that Advocate Abrahams does not regard the allegations against the Guptas as serious,’ said Mashaba. ‘I have therefore taken the decision to approach our courts with the intention of seeking legal recourse against the Gupta brothers‚ Atul and Ajay‚ for their alleged racial slurs against black South Africans‚’ he said.

Mashaba said he had recently had a chance to engage with past and present employees of ‘Gupta TV (ANN7, now Afro World View) who have relayed to me numerous accounts in which the station’s bosses allegedly uttered racial slurs against black employees, and black South Africans in general’.

The report notes that, late in 2017, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation lodged a complaint of racism against Rajesh Gupta with the Human Rights Commission. The two groups had approached the ANC to lead the complaint against Gupta for allegedly ‘referring to his employees as monkeys and causing them much distress’, but the party refused.

Mashaba said on Sunday the Guptas’ alleged racism is corroborated by Rajesh Sundaram, a former editor at ‘Gupta TV, whose account of discriminatory and unfair working conditions, mainly affecting young black employees as well as migrant Indian workers, is captured in his book Indentured: Behind the Scenes at Gupta TV.’

Full BusinessLIVE report

Mashaba’s full statement on the Daily Maverick site