JOHANNESBURG: The Indian brothers who are accused of corrupting South African President Jacob Zuma lashed out Friday at “xenophobic and hate speech” against them, and denied benefiting from links to the government.

The Gupta family’s power has allegedly extended to appointing ministers under Zuma, whose presidency has been engulfed in graft scandals and growing disillusion over the country’s post-apartheid prospects.

“As the global economic slowdown began to bite, the family became the scapegoat for every calamity and misfortune that South Africa has faced,” the Guptas, who moved to the country in the 1990s, said in a statement.

“We have been quiet until now but given the recent xenophobic and hate speech against us, now is the time to set the record straight.”

The statement was printed across a double-page spread in The New Age — the pro-government paper they own — under the headline “Gupta family: The Inconvenient Truth.”

“It is absurd to suggest that we benefit from government business when only less than one percent of the (family’s) business is with the South African government,” it said.

The three Gupta brothers said they employ 5,000 staff in mining, engineering, technology, media and property businesses built up from a small marketing company based in a Johannesburg garage.

The statement came after deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas said that they offered him the top job in the treasury last year.

Jonas said he rejected the offer, but several other ministerial appointments have been widely reported as being due to the Guptas.