CAPE TOWN - The Gupta family is being accused of crippling a Gauteng business that supplied the family with equipment to continue operations at their Shiva Uranium mine in Klerksdorp, the DA reports.
Quarry Master, situated in Springs, Ekurhuleni was contacted in 2015 by Varun Gupta, who sought to utilise the company’s expertise to repair a rock crushing machine.
Quarry Master took up the job but indicated that repairing the machine would be of no use and that a replacement unit should be installed.
Varun Gupta insisted that the company do the repair job, despite being informed the repair would carry no warranty.
The DA says that Quarry Master repaired the machine and sent a technical team onsite to monitor the system for a period of 12 hours, as per the request of Varun Gupta.
Suspiciously, when these 12 hours were up, the machine “broke” and Varun refused to pay for the work carried out, including other goods that were purchased from Quarry Master.
When Quarry Master sought legal action, Varun Gupta said he would counter sue.
The company was now R500 000 out of pocket and not in a position to take the matter further, the DA said.
Subsequently the company has had to down-scale its labour force and its reputation with its suppliers has been severly tarnished.