There is widespread anger in South Africa against former president Jacob Zuma after he was spotted at a temple in India alongside businessmen Ajay Gupta, who is allegedly at the centre of a massive corruption scandal in the African country.Zuma’s meeting with Gupta came to light last week after the Indian media shared photos of the two visiting the Siddhpeeth Shri Dakshin Kali Mandir in Haridwar.Cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Friday strongly condemned Zuma’s trip, as she launched a scathing attack on both Zuma and South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal, who was spotted at the temple with the former president.Ntshavheni accused Zuma of undermining South Africa’s laws and foreign policy, stating that his actions were an insult to the public.“It is very disturbing that a former state president can openly and unapologetically show the middle finger to South Africans, and continues to show the middle finger and claims that he wants to run this country again,” she said.Ntshavheni said: “It shows the type of person he is and that is for South Africans to judge.”The Gupta brothers, who are from Uttar Pradesh, built a business empire spanning IT, mining and media after moving to South Africa in the early 1990s.Around a decade ago, they were accused of using their close ties with then president Zuma to influence government decisions and profit from the relationship in what later became known as the “state capture” scandal. The brothers and Zuma denied any wrongdoing.The Gupta family left South Africa in 2018 after a judicial commission began investigating the allegations.South African authorities cancelled the arrest warrant against Ajay Gupta in 2019, while the UAE in 2023 rejected South Africa’s request to extradite his brothers, Atul and Rajesh, who are based there. Ajay is reportedly in India.Zuma was forced by his party, African National Congress, to resign from the national presidency in February 2018, after his alleged links with the Gupta brothers were exposed.The party later expelled him in July 2024. By then, Zuma had launched a new political party, Umkhonto We Sizwe, in an attempt to contest elections and return to the government.Cabinet minister Ntshavheni also criticised High Commissioner Sooklal, who was seen at the temple with Zuma and Gupta.She further said the minister of international relations and cooperation, Ronald Lamola, has demanded an internal report from Sooklal regarding his presence there.However, their cabinet colleague, deputy president Paul Mashatile, defended Sooklal, saying that the diplomat was merely doing his job in line with standard protocols of providing support to any visiting former head of state.“As a former president, (Zuma) has the responsibilities that he is engaging in different countries, and ambassadors will continue to receive him,” Mashatile told The Star newspaper on Monday.Diplomatic sources said Sooklal has claimed that he was unaware of Gupta’s appearance at what was ostensibly a private religious visit to India by the former president.The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, an NGO which played a major role in mobilising civil society to remove Zuma from office in 2018, said in a statement that the public cannot view Zuma’s trip to India as a routine private visit. “South Africans must confront the damning realities established by the judiciary,” it said.Citing the findings of the judicial commission of inquiry into the corruption case involving the Guptas, it alleged that Zuma had enabled the family’s influence over state institutions and that Ajay Gupta was identified as a central figure in the “state capture” scandal.The foundation said the findings underscored the seriousness of Zuma’s meeting with Gupta.