MPs have raised serious questions about the Guptas’ hasty selling of their business assets, saying the controversial business family might be planning to skip the country.
Independent Media understands that the SA Revenue Service will also look into the transactions.
This comes after Gupta-owned Oakbay Resources announced yesterday that it had sold its mining company, Tegeta Exploration and Resources, to Swiss-based Charles King SA for R2.97 billion.
The sale was announced two days after the Guptas sold their 24-hour news channel, ANN7, and The New Age newspaper to their ally, Mzwanele Manyi, for R450 million.
Five local banks and the Bank of Baroda have dumped the family, raising suspicion that the sale of assets was part of a scramble to get banking services.
Yesterday, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan said that MPs had “raised concerns about these sales as they are in the public interest”. He directed further questions to Parliament’s public enterprises portfolio committee acting chairperson and ANC MP, Zukiswa Rantho.
The committee was investigating allegations of state capture, which involved coal contracts awarded to Tegeta by Eskom.
In an explosive affidavit earlier this year, Gordhan reportedly revealed how R6.8 billion in “suspicious and unusual transactions” may have contributed to the country’s major banks closing accounts associated with the Guptas.
Rantho told Independent Media that the issue of the family selling its assets was raised informally following a committee meeting in Parliament. “At this stage we haven’t got anything concrete that they are planning to leave the country.”
Amin Al Zarooni, the owner of Charles King SA, said opportunities in mining in South Africa were extremely attractive and that they had been looking to invest in the country, and would seek a black economic empowerment partner.