{"id":134697,"date":"2016-08-27T16:57:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T14:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=134697"},"modified":"2016-08-27T17:22:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T15:22:59","slug":"gupta-family-to-sell-off-businesses-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/134697\/gupta-family-to-sell-off-businesses-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Gupta family to sell off businesses in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gupta owned newspaper, The New Age, reports that the family will dispose of the stakes it holds in South African businesses before the end of the year in an effort to preserve jobs.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince our decision to step down from all executive and non-executive positions in all our South African business in April 2016, the local management team has grown our businesses from strength to strength, with turnover and profits showing good growth and more jobs created.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a family, we now believe that the time is right for us to exit our shareholding of the South African businesses which we believe will benefit our existing employees, and lead to further growth in the businesses,” the family said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs such, we announce today our intention to sell all of our shareholding in South Africa by the end of the year,\u201d the Gupta family said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that this decision is in the best interests of our business, the country and our colleagues,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

It follows the resignation in April, of non-executive chairman Atul Gupta and chief executive officer Varun Gupta from Oakbay Resources.<\/p>\n

The Gupta family warned at the time that as many as 7,500 employees at Oakbay Investments would lose their jobs after the country’s major banks closed their accounts with the firm.<\/p>\n

Oakbay Resources is a major subsidiary of Oakbay Investments \u2013 the main investment channel for the Gupta family in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The politically connected family has come under scrutiny after being accused of state capture, and for their relationship with president Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n

The Guptas have rejected numerous allegations that they influenced the appointment of ministers including those in the finance department.<\/p>\n

News24<\/a> reported that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan allegedly told Treasury staff at a meeting on Friday that the Guptas were attacking him because of the work the department was doing.<\/p>\n

Read: Gupta company bosses gang up on Gordhan live on radio<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gupta family spokesperson, Gary Naidoo, said in a statement<\/a> that the family is disappointed by the comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have repeatedly pointed out that our family is a victim of a political campaign against it,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

The family said it believes that \u201cnarrative has been constructed\u201d against them and accused media houses of contributing to a \u201cflawed perception\u201d of them.<\/p>\n

In March, ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe called on politicians to come forward to provide evidence of an alleged attempt at state capture by the family.<\/p>\n

He said he would politically protect anyone who came forward.<\/p>\n

Mantashe later said that while eight people came forward relating to the allegations of state capture \u2013 only one person was willing to provide a written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of comrades came forward on alleged business influence on state but only one could make a written submission,\u201d Mantashe said.<\/p>\n

More on the Gupta family<\/h3>\n

Why the Guptas and Zuma\u2019s son really quit Oakbay \u2013 DA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA banks acted independently against the Guptas: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Guptas have not \u2018fled\u2019 South Africa: Oakbay CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Gupta company asks Zuma for help: leaked letter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gupta owned newspaper, The New Age, reports that the family will dispose of the stakes it holds in South African businesses before the end of the year in an effort to preserve jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":115414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-134697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134697"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134717,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134697\/revisions\/134717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}