The Daily Maverick (DM) has just launched a new journalistic investigative unit called Scorpio.

Why? Among other reasons, the most prominent at the moment is to bring down the Guptas and their thieving associates:

Last weekend, the Sunday Times and City Press fired the first salvos in a story that should shake our nation to the core. The former did not exaggerate when it referred to “e-mails that prove the Guptas run South Africa”, even if its judgement was based on limited facts, as we shall see.

You see, according to the DM’s editorial published early this morning, the two newspapers had a “trove of about 650 emails sent between the Gupta brothers, their associates and others” that they just couldn’t wait to publish.

But that was the tip of the iceberg.

The DM’s Scorpio, along with our favourite investigative non-profit, amaBhungane (amaB), began publishing a series of articles regarding the information found within more than a “few hundred gigabytes of information containing between 100,000 and 200,000 unique e-mails and a host of other documents” this morning.

They have aptly named the series #GuptaLeaks.

Deeming the information “too dangerous and too important not to share” there are a few articles that DM and amaB have published so far.

If you want to know what all the fuss is about, you should take the time to read them:

Guptas and associates score R5.3bn in locomotives kickbacks

In our first exposé from the #GuptaLeaks, we show how the president’s friends and their associates are diverting billions of rand from Transnet’s purchase of locomotives to their offshore accounts.

Read here.

Guptas pushed Eskom for R1.68bn prepayment

The #GuptaLeaks have exposed the extent to which Matshela Koko – once tipped to become Eskom chief executive – appears to have been captured by the Guptas.

Read here.

Did Gigaba and officials grease Gupta gears?

President Jacob Zuma’s sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has been explained by many in light of the notion that the national Treasury stood in the way of Zuma’s pet projects. Some of these featured Zuma’s friends, the Guptas, who appear to have waged their own campaign against Treasury. Gordhan’s replacement was Gigaba, who inevitably stands under a cloud of suspicion. Thanks to a leaked trove of data from the heart of the Gupta empire, the cloud is growing heavier.

Read here.

Duduzane Zuma, Kept and Captured

Duduzane Zuma, the 35-year-old son of President Jacob Zuma, emerges from the #GuptaLeaks as kept and captured by the Gupta family, serving as a key channel for influence on official decision-making, including his father’s.

Read here.

The R331m Dubai Mansion

If the Guptas were looking for anonymity, Dubai wasn’t far enough.

Read here.

The two investigative units have committed to releasing all the information in the upcoming weeks and months – and maybe even years, because “much of the data is such that it requires a painstaking assembly of pieces of a very large puzzle, combining what is in the #GuptaLeaks with external information”.

It’s going to be one hell of a ride, and let’s just hope something substantial comes out of it.

Oh, and in case you missed it, you can see Mmusi having a go in Parliament yesterday here – quite the lag.

[source:dailymaverick]