The Gupta family vehemently denies reports that they’re packing for Dubai, and said they’d take legal action against those who have published the story.
A report citing ANC sources that appeared in Africa Confidential on Friday said the Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, were in the process of relocating to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in the wake of “increased scrutiny” of their businesses, especially their contracts with government or state-owned enterprises.
But family spokesman Gary Naidoo said this was “categorically untrue”.
“We have also seen these reports and are pursuing legal action against those that have published the story,” Naidoo said.
“The Gupta family are proud to be South African and have been in the country since 1993. Oakbay Investments, the holding company for the Gupta family’s businesses in South Africa, has a strong track record of business success and has reinvested all profits in South Africa,” he added.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan declined an invitation to the post-Budget breakfast hosted by the Gupta-owned New Age newspaper, choosing instead to have an event not linked to a media house.
Questions have been raised for a number of years over the New Age business breakfasts held in partnership with the SABC, which are attended by cabinet ministers and for which government entities have paid large sums for tables, as well as advertising in the newspaper, whose sales are not measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
Questions have also been raised over the manner in which a firm in which the Guptas and President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane hold interests, Tegeta Exploration and Resources, became the preferred bidder for a coal mine belonging to Glencore, which supplies Eskom’s Arnot power station.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, a surprise appointment to the position last year, took an interest in facilitating the deal. The question of “state capture” and the alleged undue influence of the Guptas in government was a topic of debate at the ANC’s January national executive committee lekgotla, where it was raised by the SACP.
Since then the ANC has held a meeting with representatives of the family’s businesses at Luthuli House. Concerns over links between the family and senior ANC leaders, including the so-called “premier league” consisting of provincial chairmen David Mabuza (Mpumalanga), Ace Magashule (Free State) and Supra Mahumapelo (North West), were also discussed last weekend at the SACP’s central committee, according to a senior leader in the party.
Zuma has been given a rough ride in Parliament over his ties to the family, with the EFF calling him “Mr Zupta” during his State of the Nation address, before leaving the National Assembly.
The party had also announced its intention to target the family and force it to leave the country, but has since been prohibited by a court order from doing so.
Saturday Star