Government in ‘phase two’ of plan to recover stolen Gupta money, says deputy NPA director

South Africa’s fight to repair the state after years of capture is starting to show tangible results, with billions clawed back from corruption-linked assets and a promise that the Guptas’ stolen wealth may not be lost forever.

Advocate Ouma Rabaji-Rasethaba, the deputy national director of public prosecutions at the National Prosecuting Authority, said that R19-billion in corruption-linked assets have already been frozen, with a further R6-billion deposited into state accounts or returned to “victim departments”.

She also said that justice would be done to those most seriously and credibly accused of misappropriating South African taxpayers’ money, the alleged architects of State Capture: the Gupta brothers. 

Rabaji-Rasethaba was speaking during a panel discussion hosted by Daily Maverick associate editor Ferial Haffajee on “The inside story of fixing government, one department and institution at a time” at Daily Maverick’s The Gathering 2025 event in Cape Town on Thursday morning, 28 August. 

She was joined on stage by SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter and Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber. 

Watch The Gathering

Among the headline recoveries by the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit is the Optimum coal mine, valued at R3.5-billion, seized alongside R1.9-billion in stolen rehabilitation funds. Other settlements with multinationals implicated in State Capture, including SAP and McKinsey, have brought in billions more.

Rabaji-Rasethaba stressed that ordinary South Africans “are victims of crime and corruption” every time they face water shortages, load shedding or empty hospital shelves. 

“When there is no water, when there is no electricity, no textbooks, no medication, no hospitals, we are all suffering,” she said.

The Guptas, long seen as the untouchable symbol of State Capture excess, are also firmly in the NPA’s sights. 

Asked by Haffajee if the money alleged to have been stolen by the Guptas was gone, the advocate said: “Put it this way, what we’ve done was phase one. We are going into phase two and in fact we have started.” 

While much of their fortune is now parked abroad, Rabaji-Rasethaba said that “phase two” of asset recovery is under way in conjunction with the World Bank stolen assets recovery unit, the Basel Institute and other international enforcement networks to “force those countries where we know our money is to bring back the stolen money”.

“We are working through international systems to make sure we get the money back.”

Her remarks mark one of the clearest commitments yet that South African authorities are actively pursuing Gupta assets overseas, despite years of stalled extradition efforts.

Kieswetter detailed how SARS had clawed back credibility and compliance after the Tom Moyane years, collecting R2.3-trillion in revenue last year, including R30-billion from crime syndicates.

But, Kieswetter cautioned, the challenges to restoring institutional functionality and integrity and going beyond just repair were not without their challenges.

“At times I feel that I’m going into a gunfight armed with a nail clipper,” he said, noting that some multinationals have tax departments that are larger than SARS’ entire budget. 

Kieswetter argued that SARS’ turnaround is proof that institutions can be rebuilt with integrity and focus.

Schreiber said home affairs was also on the mend after the department was for years broadly seen as a byword for dysfunction. He outlined efforts to digitise IDs, passports and visas, with bank branches and apps set to become service points.

“I want to take home affairs from Hell Affairs to Hope Affairs,” he said, outlining a more digital and accessible future for his department.

All three “fixers” emphasised that while progress is being made, the gains remain fragile. Kieswetter warned that “as quickly as an organisation can be built and restored, it can be destroyed by the appointment of one person in a leadership position”. DM