Jacob Zuma: The embarrassing end of an influential politician's career

- Massive violence erupts after former South African President Jacob Zuma is jailed

- As many as 117 people have been killed in violence in several South African provinces, and supporters of Jacob Zuma believe Indian-origin Gupta brothers are responsible for Zuma's imprisonment, so there are reports of people of Indian descent being targeted.

Massive violence has erupted since former South African President Jacob Zuma was arrested last week on corruption charges. There have also been reports of attacks on Indians living in South Africa.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke to the South African foreign minister on the matter and assured the safety of Indians from the South African government. Troops have also been deployed to prevent violence. However, violence has spread to many parts of South Africa.

Jacob Zuma was accused of abusing his position and harboring corrupt people. Zuma resigned as president of South Africa three years ago after his ruling African National Congress party ordered him to step down.

Zuma is accused of conspiring with politicians to influence the government's decision-making process during his presidency. But Zuma says in his defense that he has fallen victim to a political conspiracy. He has many supporters within the party even after he was forced to resign by his own party. He has a large following, especially in his home state of KwaZulu-Natal.

Violence erupted after a South African court sentenced Jacob Zuma to 18 months in prison for failing to co-operate in a corruption case. As many as 114 people have been killed in the violence.

People of Indian descent were also targeted in the violence. South Africa is home to about 1.5 million Indian tourists. In fact, Jacob Zuma's supporters feel that the Gupta brothers of Indian descent are responsible for Zuma's imprisonment, which is why people of Indian descent are being targeted there.

In fact, the name of the Gupta family in Uttar Pradesh is floating in the allegations of corruption against Jacob Zuma. The Gupta brothers, who migrated from India to South Africa, have played a central role in all the scandals during Jacob Zuma's tenure.

The question is, how can this Gupta family be so close to the head of South Africa, who is so far away from India, and so corrupt?

Apartheid was coming to an end in South Africa in the early nineties and the country was opening its doors to the people of the world. At that time, in the year 19, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh went to South Africa. The brothers were to become infamous in South Africa as the Gupta Brothers. It is said that Shivkumar Gupta, the father of the Gupta brothers, who was a grocer, felt that there were many opportunities for development in South Africa, which had been liberated from the clutches of the British, so he decided to send his son Atul to South Africa.

When Atul Gupta arrived in South Africa, he saw that the bureaucracy here was much less than in India and there was a lot of flexibility in doing business. He started a company here called Saharanpur called Sahara Computers.

The company's main job was to sell computer hardware. Gradually the Gupta Brothers ventured into coal and gold mining. In time, the Gupta Brothers built a large business empire in South Africa. He also invested heavily in technology and engineering as well as media.

The Gupta family has more than ten thousand employees in different companies. In 2010, the Gupta family also started a newspaper called The News Age, which was considered a pro-Jacob Zuma newspaper. Then in 2012, Gupta Brothers also started a news channel.

The Gupta family's identity is now growing in political parties as well. Even before Zuma became president, the Gupta Brothers had established close ties with the African National Congress. It is said that fifteen years ago when Jacob Zuma came to his Johannesburg-based residence to attend the annual ceremony of Sahara Computers, the Gupta brothers first met Jacob Zuma.

After that, family ties were established between them, even to the point that Zuma's family held different positions in different companies of the Gupta family. Zuma's wife Bogy Nagma was a director in the Zuma Gupta family's mining company, Zuma's daughter Dudujel was a director in Zuma Sahara Computer and son Dudujen was a director in the Zuma Gupta family's Okbe Investment.

Jacob Zuma is also accused of state capture along with the Gupta family. State capture is corruption in which government policies are compromised to benefit someone.

Zuma has faced similar charges in the past, but it is unbearable for his party that an outsider has been charged with state capture. It so happened that in 2012, former Deputy Finance Minister McBee Jones alleged that the Gupta family had offered him 500 million rand to make him the future finance minister.

It was then reported that Zuma and the Gupta brothers had colluded to secure government contracts. Earlier in 2010, Ajay Gupta was also accused of luring an MP to become a minister.

The Gupta family has also been accused of arbitrarily recruiting people from within the government for their own business interests in South Africa. The Zuma and Gupta Brothers alliance is notorious in South Africa as the Zuptaz.

The first major controversy against the Gupta brothers took place in 2012 when a plane carrying guests from India to attend the wedding of Atul Gupta's sister Achala's daughter landed at Pretoria's Watercloof Air Force Airport. The airport is usually used for landing planes of presidents and political guests of other countries.

The incident caused a stir in South Africa. The opposition Democratic Alliance also accused the ruling Zuma party of abuse of power.

For the past several years, there has been a backlash against the Gupta family in South Africa, but corruption cases have become a thorn in their side.

A public outcry erupted against Zuma for allegedly colluding with the Gupta Brothers in a number of corruption cases. There were also agitations to take action against Zuma. Zuma has been charged with several counts of corruption, including illegally helping the Gupta family and embezzling millions of dollars from government coffers to repair a private residence. Zuma grossly abused his power to run the Gupta family's business.

At the end of Zuma's tenure, he was in a position to conduct political affairs at the behest of the Gupta family. The Gupta family is said to have donated millions of dollars to the ruling party.

There is a lot of outrage among the people against Jacob Zuma as the South African economy has deteriorated under his rule. Zuma's tenure has been riddled with corruption, growth has slowed and South Africa's currency, the rand, has plummeted. However, Jacob Zuma's personality is considered to be very impressive.

Despite allegations of corruption and sexual harassment against him, he has so far been very popular. This is the first time the South African president has been jailed and marks the embarrassing end of Zuma's political career.