South Africa's government has launched a formal investigation and issued sharp condemnations after former president Jacob Zuma was photographed meeting Ajay Gupta — a businessman at the centre of the country's vast state corruption scandal — at a temple in Haridwar, a Hindu pilgrimage city in northern India. Zuma, who led South Africa from 2009 until his resignation in 2018, also released a video in which he referred to Gupta as a "brother and friend" and announced his intention to contest future elections, saying: "I decided to take a decision to retake the country forward. I am contesting."

Cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni was among the most vocal critics, saying Zuma was "showing the middle finger" to South Africans who had suffered financially from the Gupta family's alleged conduct. Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola accused Zuma of running "a parallel foreign policy" and said the government would investigate the visit. Ntshavheni also criticised South Africa's High Commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal, for accompanying the former president to the meeting, calling his presence a "disgrace."

The Gupta brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh — built a sprawling business empire in South Africa before fleeing the country in 2018 as a judicial commission began investigating allegations that they had used their close relationship with Zuma to influence cabinet appointments, exploit state institutions and profit from government contracts — conduct widely described as "state capture." A 2022 commission report concluded that Zuma had hired and fired key ministers at the Guptas' behest, including the 2015 dismissal of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, and documented deep corruption at the state electricity utility Eskom. Ajay Gupta was declared a fugitive in 2018, though charges against him were later withdrawn. His brothers Atul and Rajesh fled to the United Arab Emirates, where a court rejected South Africa's extradition request in 2023.

Zuma, now 84, has always denied any wrongdoing. He was expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) — the party that has governed South Africa since Nelson Mandela led it to power in the country's first democratic elections in 1994 — and now heads the opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, named after the ANC's former armed wing. The MK party secured approximately 15% of the vote in the 2024 national elections.

The controversy arrives at a politically sensitive moment. South Africa faces local government elections later this year, with the next presidential election scheduled for 2029. Zuma's public embrace of a figure synonymous with the state capture era is likely to intensify debate over accountability and the country's ongoing struggle to reckon with one of the most damaging corruption scandals in its post-apartheid history.