Guptas in S Africa releases revenue results of its company

The beleaguered Gupta family in South Africa has publicly released the annual revenue results of its company Oakbay in an attempt to dispel widespread views that they have benefited unduly from their close relationship to President Jacob Zuma.

Announcing the unprecedented step of publicly releasing the results of a private company, Oakbay chief executive Nazeem Howa said government business made up only about eight per cent of the company's business.

"I hope this will help audiences understand our operations and dispel some of the myths that have been built up about our Group - especially the myth that we are heavily reliant on Government business, when nothing could be further from the truth," Howa said.
 

"We've been around for 20 years now in South Africa and in that time have grown from just eight employees to almost 8,000 today. We also paid R141 million as corporate income tax for the financial year."

Howa said the Gupta company had created jobs and contributed to the South African economy through its taxes.

"I honestly believe that we are a force for good in this country and we look forward to continuing to grow our business and create more jobs for our country - it is what South Africa desperately needs."

The announcement came in the wake of a decision a fortnight ago by the three Gupta brothers, originally from India, that they would sell all their interests in the company by the end of the year.

Earlier this year, all major South African banks and auditing firms withdrew their services from Oakbay.

"Our South African bank accounts remain closed and we remain none the wiser as to why that is the case, despite asking the four relevant banks multiple times, for reasons.

"In the light of the majority shareholders' announcement on 27 August regarding their intention to dispose of their Oakbay shareholdings, we intend to reach out in the coming weeks, again, to the four banks, and implore them to reopen our accounts," Howa said.

The Guptas started their South African business operations with the IT company Sahara Computers and eventually branched out into mining and media as well.