South Africa to drop Gupta dairy scam case

South African prosecutors are dropping a case against the controversial Gupta family accused of corruption in a dairy scam.

The AFP news agency says the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had alleged that $20m (£16.5m) of public money meant for poor black dairy farmers in Free State province was syphoned off to the Guptas – allegations the family, originally from India – denied.

A tranche of leaked emails released last year alleged that some of the money ended up paying for the family's lavish wedding at Sun City, South Africa's upmarket holiday resort.

The NPA has sent a letter to lawyers for the Guptas saying it “ has not received information regarding the mutual legal assistance requests made to India and the United Arab Emirates, as a result the investigations are not finalised”, South Africa’s Business Day paper reports.

“The state intends to provisionally withdraw charges against the accused on 4 December,” the paper quotes the letter as saying.

The NPA spokesman in Free State Phaladi Shuping told South Africa's News24 website that law enforcement agencies were hard at work with those from the UAE and India to get "more evidence" in the quest to re-institute the charges.