The German media is reporting that the Public Prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt is investigating allegations against T-Systems, a subsidiary of the partly state-owned Deutsche Telekom, in connection with Gupta-linked state capture allegations.

If the allegations are substantiated, it will be the second time a company partly owned by foreign government has found itself caught up in state capture in SA after Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corporation was found by SARS to have overstated the price of its locomotives sold to Transnet.

According to Welt am Sonntag, the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office confirmed that it is conducting an investigation into T-Systems following a criminal complaint made by Paul Holden, co-head of Shadow World Investigations, which made detailed submissions to the Zondo Commission.

The Daily Maverick reports that the announcement of the investigation will be a major embarrassment not only to T-Systems, which always claimed it was cooperating with the state-capture investigation, but also the German government, which is part-owner of T-System’s parent, Deutsche Telekom.

T-Systems said it did not yet have any knowledge of the investigations, and that it did not tolerate violations of the law.

The company said it had co-operated with the state capture investigators, and that ‘certain business relationships have been terminated and reversed and that the subsidiary in SA was sold in 2020’.

Full Daily Maverick report