Justice Department speaks on failed Gupta extradition
“A dismal attempt at cooperation,” that’s what the Justice Department has called the United Arab Emirates’ failure to timely communicate the decision to deny the extradition request for the Gupta brothers.
They say had they not physically gone to the house of the UAE ambassador to collect the communication, the country would probably still be in the dark over the decision.
Justice Department spokesperson Chrispin Phiri says they have requested a meeting with UAE authorities to explain their lack of diplomatic communication.
He said, “diplomatic communications are done through what is called a note verbale which is the highest level of communication between two states and it goes through the diplomatic channel which is the South African embassy in the United Arab Emirates receiving a communication through DIRCO.”
“And it was essentially, we understand, that we have fully complied with your requirements, can you please provide us with an update as to when the court hearing will take place and we were met with radio silence and we say so in our statement.”
“Up until March we still had not had a reply from the United Arab Emirates and that’s why we’ve actually requested a meeting with the United Arab Emirates to understand what has informed this complete lack of cooperation with the United Arab Emirates authorities.”
“But quite clearly from our side and I want to echo what the director-general said this morning: we may not have known had we not actually followed up directly with the ambassador as of yesterday [Thursday], because we only received the note verbale yesterday after the minister of justice actually called the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in South Africa to ask him what exactly is happening and lo and behold we were told that oh, we actually have a note verbale from the United Arab Emirates.”
“It arrived on 5 April and upon enquiry why this was not sent through the diplomatic channels, we were met with an unsatisfactory response, but we still went and fetched the note verbale directly from the ambassador’s house, which is through diplomatic engagements is almost unheard of, and upon receiving this note verbale and the court judgement we then discover that this is actually all written in Arabic. This is late at night and we had to then work to translate it so that we can provide an immediate update.”
Source: eNCA
In other news – Shauwn Mkhize’s all-gold bedroom leaves Mzansi speechless – VIDEO
Mzansi reality TV star and businesswoman, Shauwn Mkhize, popularly known as Mamkhize, has shown that she is a queen of gold as she shows off her expensive all-gold bedroom.
Mamkhize is well known for her love for an expensive lifestyle and doesn’t shy away from it. Over and over again, she always shows off her costly luxurious mansions and cars, leaving Mzansi in awe. Mamkhize’s bedroom is all designed in gold, which is very expensive. It seemed that she always had something new to show her fans. Learn More
