JOHANNESBURG: The South African government harshly criticised ex-president Jacob Zuma on Friday for meeting one of the Gupta brothers accused of siphoning off millions of dollars worth of state assets.

In a video shared on social media after last month`s meeting in India, 84-year-old Zuma also suggested he would stand for re-election after being forced out of office in 2018 under a cloud of corruption allegations.

It is `very disturbing that a former state president openly and unapologetically shows the middle finger to South Africans who have lost a lot of money through the Gupta brothers` shenanigans,` minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said.

Zuma `continues to show a middle finger and claim that he wants to run this country again`, she said at a media briefing.

The three Indian-born Gupta brothers built a sprawling business empire in South Africa, but fled after a judicial commission started investigating in 2018 allegations that they were involved in massive fraud known as `state capture` under Zuma`s watch.

In a photograph shared online, Zuma is with one of the brothers, Ajay, at a temple in the pilgrim city of Haridwar on the River Ganges. -AFP