As Thuli Madonsela bowed out from the role of Public Protector, so did Pravin Gordhan step up to the plate.

We know that the State Capture report won’t be released just yet, thanks to the legal scrambling of both Zuma and Weekend Finance Minister Des van Rooyen, but that doesn’t mean it was a pleasant weekend for the Guptas and those in their pockets.

That’s because Gordhan filed a dramatic court application in the Pretoria High Court on Friday, which led to 72 transactions involving the family identified as “suspicious” by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).

The transactions range between R5 000 and R1.3 billion, adding up to a monstrous R6,8 billion in total. Here’s News24:

It is not clear whether the R6.8bn worth of transactions, which were concluded between 2012 and June 2016, is made up of payments into Gupta-linked accounts or from such accounts, or both.

According the FIC report included in the court papers filed by Gordhan at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday, the first of the red-flagged transactions were a series of transfers to or from an account held by Ajay Gupta between December 2012 and February 2014, totaling just over R80m…

Notable Gupta entities flagged in the FIC report include Shiva Uranium and Oakbay Investments. The two companies were respectively involved in alleged “suspicious” transactions worth R968m and R781m.

A R1.3bn transaction involving the bank account of the mining rehabilitation fund for Optimum – the coal mine the Guptas and Duduzane Zuma had bought this year – had also drawn the attention of the FIC.

Ready the reading glasses because here come the scans of those ‘dodgy’ transactions:

Told you to ready the reading glasses.

So what does this all mean going forward? The Daily Maverick says things might get even uglier:

While the Guptas must respond legally to the application, there are no doubt furious to be caught off guard and all their dodgy dealings made public. They are likely to retaliate by trying to get Zuma to act against Gordhan.

But Zuma would be cautious now. After being confronted by former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela with a barrage of questions about his relationship with the Guptas, his family’s connections to them, what gifts he received from them, their involvement in the purchase of a house in Waterkloof, Pretoria for one of his wives, and his reasons for firing former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, Zuma would be weary about being seen to be acting on their behalf…

Thanks to Madonsela and Gordhan, Zuma and his friends, the Guptas, find themselves in quite a fix. While they are now free of Madonsela, Gordhan moved quickly to box them in. The Guptas will for the first time have to explain themselves and their dubious business dealings to a judge. No amount of political connections, cheerleaders on their payroll or fake twitter accounts can help them wriggle out of that conundrum.

Hands up if you’re looking forward to the Guptas squirming in court as they face the music.

We should never write off the ability of crooks to wriggle their way off the hook here in South Africa, but at the very least some serious pressure will be exerted on those who have much to answer for.

Ready the popcorn – here’s hoping it gets messy.

[sources:news24&dailymaverick]