President Jacob Zuma pictured in India with Ajay Gupta and spiritual leaders
During my years as South Africa’s Ambassador to The Netherlands from 1997 to 2001, I came to understand with absolute clarity what it means to represent the President and the sovereign Republic in a foreign land. An Ambassador or High Commissioner is never a private individual. He or she is the living, breathing embodiment of the Head of State and the constitutional order of South Africa. Every handshake, every photograph, every public appearance is read — correctly — as an act performed in the name of the President and the people. In terms of diplomatic protocol, an ambassador or high commissioner is the highest representative of the president in that country. Protocol is not mere ceremony; it is the visible expression of the dignity and authority of the Republic.
It is against this standard, forged in the fire of our diplomatic service during the early years of democracy, that I view with profound dismay and anger the conduct of South Africa’s current High Commissioner to India, Professor Anil Sooklal.
On 26 June 2026, photographic and video evidence placed him shoulder to shoulder with former President Jacob Zuma and Ajay Gupta — a fugitive wanted by South African authorities on serious charges of fraud, money laundering and state capture — at a temple ceremony in Haridwar. Zuma publicly embraced Ajay Gupta as his “brother and friend”. The High Commissioner stood there, in the full view of Indian and international media, as the official representative of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
