Johannesburg - The controversial Gupta family are making moves to acquire their own bank. The family and its businesses have been rejected by the country’s four major banks.
Independent Media can reveal that executives of the Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments are lobbying various leaders of an influential workers union to back their potential takeover of a bank the union partly owns.
Read: Oakbay Resources narrows loss to R17m
This has created divisions in the upper echelons of the union, where different factions are divided over whether or not the bank should be sold to the Guptas.
Oakbay has had its bank accounts closed by Absa, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank for reasons the banks have refused to disclose. Speculation is rife in political and financial circles that the banks' moves were related to fears over regulatory breaches of the laws governing the movement of money in and out of the country.
Read: Guptas' money trail being followed
This followed revelations of their alleged influence over President Jacob Zuma and some members of his cabinet – at least one deputy minister and a former ANC MP revealed how they had been offered ministerial jobs by the Guptas. The Guptas are self-professed friends of Zuma and business partners with his son Duduzane.
Oakbay has claimed the closure of its accounts has placed its employees’ jobs at risk, leading to a cabinet decision for ministers of finance, labour and mining to try to resolve the dispute. Earlier this month Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane claimed the government would not rest until the Gupta bank issue was “resolved”.
The Guptas’ determination to acquire the bank - perhaps with regulatory cooperation from the state - appears to be a move to “resolve” the issue by circumventing the major banks. The acquisition would need the approval of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan if the Guptas plan to acquire more than 25 percent of the bank.
* Read the full story in all Independent Media titles on Thursday.