Gupta family

Interests

The family owns a number of companies in a range of different industries ranging from energy to media publications. Their first venture into South Africa was the establishment of Sahara Computers and Sahara Systems (Pty) Ltd.

In mining, their interests include Oakbay Resources and Energy: Uranium and gold mining and processing company, the Shiva Uranium Mine, Tegeta Exploration and Resources, Westdawn Investments (Pty) Ltd t/a JIC Mining Services and Black Edge Exploration.

They have substantial media interests in South Africa through TNA Media (Pty) Ltd, including The New Age, a national newspaper, and ANN7 (African News Network), a 24-hour news channel.

Other interests include VR Laser Services steel fabrication for mining, engineering and armoured vehicle applications, Islandsite Investment 180, Confident Concepts, and have links to the passenger airline Jet Airways.

On 8 September 2016 Oakbay Investments – the family’s holding company responsible for all of their interests – released their annual audited results. For the financial year ended 29 February 2016, the company’s group revenue totaled R2.62 billion.

Relationship with Jacob Zuma

The Guptas and then vice-president Zuma first met at a function hosted by the Guptas at Sahara Estate in 2003. Since then the family have been involved in a number of events involving Zuma and his family. The family is known to have been a supporter of Zuma during his power struggle for leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) with then president Thabo Mbeki in 2005.

The family is known to have employed Zuma's wife Bongi Ngema-Zuma. One of Zuma's sons, Duduzane Zuma was a director in a number of Gupta owned firms and one of his daughters, Duduzile Zuma, was made a director of the Gupta owned Sahara computers shortly after Zuma's election to the presidency in 2008. She has since resigned from that position. [3] Duduzane Zuma has also since resigned from all positions held at Gupta owned businesses. Zuma's close relationship with the family is a source of tension within Zuma's own party the ANC.

Likewise Zuma denies granting undue influence to the family.

The Guptas' influence on the presidency has been described by the former General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions Zwelinzima Vavi as a "shadow government." Donwald Pressly of the South African business publication Biznews has stated that comments made by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa about the state capture of public enterprises by people with political connections was referring to the close relationship between Zuma and the Gupta family. One of South Africa's opposition parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), have stated that the Gupta's “have de facto colonised South Africa, with Zuma being the chief colonial administrator”. The Guptas have denied this allegation, saying they have never taken any benefit from the relationship with Zuma. Zuma denies granting undue influence to the family.

Prior to its national executive committee over the weekend of the 18–20 March 2016, spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the ANC was concerned about "state capture". In March 2016 the ANC launched an investigation into state capture and the Gupta family. In May ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said it would be a “fruitless” exercise for the party to continue to investigate allegations of state capture against the Gupta family as they had only received one written submission on the matter. A spokesman for the ‘Hawks’ -a serious crime investigative unit setup by the Zuma administration- stated that reports that corruption charges filed against the three ministers and the Gupta family are ‘baseless’.

As part of the company’s annual results announcement in September 2016, Oakbay Investments stated that government contracts accounted for 9% of the company’s sales.

Oakbay also stated that its largest mining company, JIC Mining Services, has never had a government contract, while Sahara, the second biggest contributor, has had no government contacts following a deliberate decision taken by the board in 2008.

Zupta

A reflection of the close relationship between the Gupta family and Jacob Zuma, particularly by both Zuma and the family's detractors, is the term "Zupta" to refer to this relationship. The portmanteau "Zupta," a combination of "Z" from "Zuma" and the "upta" from "Gupta," was first coined by the Economic Freedom Fighters at the 2016 South African presidential state of the nation address when they disrupted the event by repeatedly chanting "Zupta must fall" to express their dissatisfaction with this relationship.

Guptagate

In April 2013 a plane load of 217 guests from India were cleared to land at the South African Air Force base at Waterkloof for the marriage of Vega Gupta to Aakash Jahajgarhia. This event caused a significant controversy that led to the African National Congress (ANC) and other political parties as well as the South African National Defence Union to denounce this use of the air force base. The ANC issued a statement calling for "those responsible for giving the family permission to come into the country without going through the normal channels be 'brought to book'".

In the aftermath of the event, India's High Commissioner Virendra Gupta (not related to the Gupta family) said publicly that the Indian High Commission was given permission to land the plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base. He explained that the Commission communicated through its defence adviser with the chief of defence for foreign relations in the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).

The landing was cleared by Bruce Koloane who was chief of state protocol at the department of international relations who insisted that the flight was a “sensitive” official visit. Koloane was demoted after an investigation concluded that he used Zuma's name to illegally authorise the landing. President Zuma was scheduled to attend the wedding but cancelled after the incident became public. The family apologised for the incident stating that they applied for special permission to land as a number of the guests were Indian government ministers and that it was promoting tourism to South Africa. The incident prompted a significant outcry that it was dubbed "Guptagate" by the South African media.

Influence over Cabinet appointments

In 2016 a series of allegations of the Guptas' influence over appointments to the South African Cabinet came to the fore. Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor claimed that in 2010 the Guptas had offered her the position of Minister of Public Enterprises, provided that she arranged for South African Airlines to drop their India route, allowing a Gupta linked company (Jet Airways) to take on the route. She said she declined the offer, which occurred at the Guptas' Saxonwold residence, while President Zuma was in another room. This came a few days before a cabinet reshuffle in which minister Barbara Hogan was dismissed by Zuma. The Gupta family denied that the meeting took place and denied offering Vytijie a ministerial position. President Zuma claimed that he had no recollection of Vytjie Mentor.

Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas confirmed media reports that he had been offered the ministerial position by the Guptas shortly before the disastrous dismissal of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015, but had rejected the offer out of hand as "it makes a mockery of our hard-earned democracy‚ the trust of our people and no one apart from the President of the Republic appoints ministers". The Gupta family denied offering Jonas the job of Finance Minister.

The Sunday Times has reported that the Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Zwane, and then Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, David van Rooyen (who was controversially appointed by President Zuma as Minster of Finance in December 2015) met with members of the Gupta family in Dubai. Van Rooyen allegedly met with them only a few days after his unsuccessful appointment to be Minister of Finance on the 20 December 2015. Minister Zwane assisted in the sale of a large coal mine to a Gupta owned company.

Former bodyguards of the Gupta family have stated that they often saw important government officials, such as Hlaudi Motsoeneng the CEO of the state broadcaster the SABC, and large amounts of money in cash moving out of the Gupta's Saxonwold estate. The bodyguards also stated that Ajay Gupta would visit President Zuma up to three times a week until 2015 at the presidential guest house in Pretoria. A spokesperson for president Zuma denies that the visits ever happened.

Ranjeni Munusamy of the Daily Maverick has stated the "Gupta family has effectively usurped the function of the ANC deployment committee" thereby undermining the party's ability to independently and legitimately select senior ministers and executives in government and state owned companies.

The Gupta's alleged influence was the subject of an investigation into "state capture" by outgoing Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. President Zuma and Minister Des van Rooyen applied for an interdict to prevent the publication of the report on 14 October 2016, Madonsela's last day in office. Van Rooyen's application was dismissed, and the President withdrew his application, leading to the release of the report on 2 November. The report recommends the establishment of a judicial commission of enquiry into the issues identified.

The report recommends that a full probe of Mr. Zuma's dealings with the Guptas should be conducted by a commission of inquiry, with the findings published within 180 days. Zuma and Des van Rooyen have since denied any wrongdoing.

The Gupta's lawyer disputed the evidence in the report.

T he Gupta family have denied any wrongdoing and welcomed the opportunity to challenge the report’s findings in an official judiciary inquiry.

On 25 November 2016, Zuma announced that the Presidency would be reviewing the contents of the state capture report. He said it "was done in a funny way" with "no fairness at all." And argued he was not given enough time to respond to the public protector.

Mining interests

Oakbay Resources & Energy, is a mining and processing company, run by the Gupta family. It supplies minerals and mineral products, such as gold, uranium, platinum, coal and diamonds and also conducts trackless/mechanised mining, track bound mining, breast mining, down-dip mining and open-pit gold operation. Oakbay Resources & Energy began trading on the JSE on 28 November 2014.

Iron ore dispute

In 2010 the Gupta owned firm, Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), along with Duduzane Zuma who was a part owner in ICT were involved in a dispute with ArcelorMittal and Anglo American plc over the rightful ownership of Kumba Iron Ore, which owns Sishen mine, one of Africa's largest iron mines. The Department of Mineral Resources granted the ICT 21.4% ownership in the mine when ArcelorMittal did not renew their mining licence in time. The case was taken to the Constitutional Court where, in 2013, it was ruled that the Gupta/Zuma consortium could not claim rightful ownership. Had they won the case ArcelorMittal would have had to pay them R800 million (US$80 million).

Coal

The South African Sunday Times alleged that a Gupta owned company, Tegeta, benefited from official connections in the awarding of a R4 billion contract to supply coal to the state electrical utility company Eskom. The Mines Minister Mosebenzi Zwane denied this allegation saying that he didn’t give Tegeta any preferential treatment and was only interested in preserving jobs following Tegeta’s purchase of a coal mine that supplies Eskom. According to the business rescue practitioners Tegeta will also take on the R2.4 billion penalty imposed by Eskom on Optimum for delivering poor-quality coal. On the 12th June, City Press alleged that Eskom awarded Tegeta a contract worth more than R564 million, paying in advance in order to ‘bail out the Guptas’ and that it also allowed the company to divert a significant portion of Optimum’s coal to another power station in order to be bought at a higher price. An executive for Eskom said that paying companies in advance has been done before and that Eskom was not diverting coal from the Hendrina power plant to the Arnot power plant. Nazeem Howa described allegations as “sublime and ridiculous” and that prepayments were a standard practice of Eskom.

On 8 September 2016, Nazeem Howa told Bloomberg that Oakbay Investments had signed a contract to export power-plant coal at a premium to the highest price it gets from Eskom of R150 ($11) per ton. He declined to comment on whether its export allocation was being sold.

Uranium interests and Nhlanhla Nene

The family is alleged by the Rand Daily Mail to have worked closely with Zuma to secure interests in South Africa's nuclear energy sector. In 2014 the South African government announced that a 9 600 MW nuclear procurement programme that entailed the construction of six to eight nuclear reactors at an estimated cost of between R800 billion to R1.6 trillion (US$50-billion to US$100 billion) was under consideration. This proposal was approved by the Zuma cabinet on the 9 December 2015. Zuma's controversial dismissal of then minister of finance Nhlanhla Nene on the 9 December 2015 is alleged to have been partially motivated by Nene's department's resistance to the nuclear agreement. President Zuma stated that this move was motivated by Nene's nomination to head the African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank/Brics Bank. Zuma's statement was met with skepticism by the media and opposition political parties, partly because Nene was unaware of his nomination to the post.

Nene was briefly replaced with the little known David van Rooyen before public criticism lead to Zuma re-appointing former minister of finance Pravin Gordhan to the position instead. Strong links between both of Van Rooyen's top two advisers and the Gupta family came to light a few months after Nene's dismissal. Shortly after Gordhan's appointment an investigation was initiated by the Hawks into allegations of corruption whilst he was head of the South African Revenue Service. The investigation was criticised on legal grounds and for being politically motivated by a number of organisations and individuals including the South African Communist Party. Gordhan stated that the Gupta family was behind the charges. The Gupta family denied being involved in any effort to remove Gordhan from office.

Railways

The Gupta family along with Duduzane Zuma have been implicated in an attempt to improperly influence the awarding of a R51 billion (roughly equivalent to US$6 billion in 2012) contract to deliver 600 trains to South Africa on behalf of the China South Rail company. In 2012 the former head of the South African Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa), Lucky Montana, wrote a letter detailing an attempt by the Guptas and Zuma to pressure then South African minister of transport, Ben Martins, and Montana, Prasa’s then CEO, to favour China South Rail. The letter became public in June 2016 when Montana sent a copy to the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Armaments

VR Laser Services, in which the Guptas and Duduzane Zuma, President Zuma's son, own a 25% stake, entered into a partnership with the state owned aerospace and defence company Denel to establish Denel Asia, based in Hong Kong. The official opposition, Democratic Alliance have alleged that the establishment of the joint venture is illegal as certain provisions of the Public Finance Management Act have not been complied with. The Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, confirmed that the Asian marketing arm of Denel was not in compliance with various legal provisions.

Media

The international news broadcaster Al Jazeera English has alleged that Zuma's close relationship with the Guptas has "translated into friendly coverage in the outlets they own," specifically ANN7 and the New Age.

Economic Freedom Fighters criticism

On 4 February 2016 Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) announced that members of the press from Gupta owned media companies, ANN7 and The New Age, would no longer be welcome at future EFF media announcements. The EFF alleged that this was because of their role as being part of a "propaganda machinery" of a "corrupt cartel". He stated that the EFF "cannot guarantee the safety of those who are working in those studios and printing factories of the New Age and ANN7." The EFF criticised the "New Age Breakfasts", a series of breakfast events organised by The New Age with and often paid for by government departments, as well as accused the paper of receiving preferential treatment in receiving advertising contracts from government. A spokesperson for the African National Congress defended the Gupta family, stressing their history of investment in South Africa. A few days later the EFF released a list of 25 reasons why they are against the family, again accusing them of receiving preferential treatment in business dealings with government as well as government preference and collusion with Gupta owned media interests.

The EFF's perceived threats towards ANN7 and New Age employees caused a number of other media commentators and publications to criticise Malema's remarks as threatening media independence and advocating violence towards the media and a particularly strong rebuke from the New Age and ANN7. An anti-gag order disallowing the EFF from banning The New Age and ANN7 from EFF media briefings was issued by the High Court following Malema's remarks. The court also upheld the applicants’ rights and those of the Gupta family as South African citizens to remain in South Africa and carry out business operations. The judge presiding over the case concluded that Malema’s statement was a “threat of violence” and said the Guptas and their employees “have a constitutionally protected right not to be threatened with violence”.

Sekunjalo Investments dispute

In November 2012 the Gupta family, through Oakbay, were granted an option to buy 50% of the shares of Independent News and Media South Africa, one of the largest newspaper operations in South Africa, after the company had been bought out by Sekunjalo Investments who was negotiating the purchase of the group from the Irish owned Independent News and Media. After the successful purchase of the group by Sekunjalo in February 2013 Oakbay sought to exercise its share purchase options. This led to disagreements between Oakbay and Sekunjalo about the true value and cost of the options and so they could not settle on an agreement as to how much Oakbay should pay for the shares. Ten percent of buyout by Sekunjalo was also funded by the South African Government Employees Pension Fund who had never agreed to Oakbay having the options and, when asked in early 2016, rejected Oakbay's request to exercise the option to buy 50% of the now Sekunjalo owned newspaper publishing company. This led to Oakbay taking Sekunjalo to court.

In September 2016, Oakbay Investment's annual report stated that The New Age newspaper and the ANN7 news channel contributed R275.6 million towards Oakbay's revenue in 2015 – earning roughly R78m a year, or 27% of overall revenue, from the government.

Public relations efforts

To deal with mounting public criticism the Gupta family hired the public relations firm Bell Pottinger. In late February 2016 a number of internet based sources were altered in a way that was favourable to the Guptas. These included activities in chat rooms, blogs and on news articles related to the Gupta family as well as on Wikipedia. It is thought by the Mail and Guardian that these favourable alterations were part of a sustained media campaign to improve the family's image.

In a statement to the Financial Times on 25 November 2016, Bell Pottinger stated that their role has been “to correct misperceptions” about Oakbay. They have intended to communicate that a competitive, disruptive, job-creating narrative is what is needed to achieve transformation in South Africa.

Gupta owned media outlets, ANN7 and The New Age, ran stories alleging an anti-Zuma plot by a faction within the ANC was one possible source of allegations against the Gupta family. Following the ANC's national executive counile meeting in March 2016 the ANC's secretary general issued a statement criticising the coverage of the event by Gupta family owned media. In response ANN7 and The New Age agreed to publish an official apology to the ANC.

Fake News

Gupta owned media interests were blamed by other South African media organisations and civil society organisations for running fake news campaigns against a number of individuals and groups judged hostile to Gupta interests. Targets included The Huffington Post, Sunday Times, Radio 702, and City Press in addition to individuals such as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan who was seen as blocking Gupta attempts at state capture. Attacks against Gordhan focused on accusations of him promoting state capture for "white monopoly capital".

Corporate response

Due to the controversial nature of the family's relationship with Jacob Zuma numerous South African and international banking and auditing firms decided to end their business dealings with Gupta owned firms in early April 2016. The auditing firm KPMG, the brokerage Sasfin Bank, and Barclays Africa’s Absa bank as well as First National Bank all announced that they would no longer be dealing with the Gupta owned Oakbay Investments, the holding company for the family's investments. Johan van Dyk at the South African financial forensics firm Censeo stated that companies were disassociating with the family due to concerns that an association with the family could cost them customers.

In response the Gupta owned Oakbay alleged that this is “clear proof that the recent allegations against the company and the wider Gupta family are all part of a carefully orchestrated political campaign.” Oakbay executives publicly repeated the accusation and went on to accuse South African businessman Johan Rupert of being involved in a conspiracy against them. Oakbay stated that Rupert, through the Rupert owned Remgro investment company, had interests in the country's financial institutions and that this allowed him to influence banks so that they would stop doing business with Oakbay. Although Remgro had a 3.3% share ownership in FirstRand it did not have any investments or ownership in any of the other financial institutions Oakbay accused it of having.

On the 8th April 2016 Duduzane Zuma, Atul Gupta, and Varun Gupta announced that they would be stepping down from their director positions at Oakbay Resources and Energy in response to mounting pressure. Oakbay stated that it had become nearly impossible to conduct business due to the business community's decision to discontinue doing business with the controversial firm. A few days later an Ajay and Atul Gupta along with other members of the family were reported to have left South Africa for Dubai. Julius Malema of the EFF, claimed that president Zuma illegally took out R6 billion (US$400 million) of the Gupta's money for them from South Africa when he visited the United Arab Emirates in March 2016.

The trade union and ANC political ally COSATU criticised the move by South African financial institutions to refuse to do business with Oakbay on the grounds that it was "political posturing" and put the jobs of thousands of South African employees of the firm at risk. On the 20th June it was reported that the Gupta family were back in South Africa after an extended time away from the country.

On 8 September 2016, after announcing their annual results, Nazeem Howa told Reuters that the company was intending to urge the four banks that ended their relationships with the company to reopen their accounts. Howa was also quoted as stating that a judicial commission of enquiry into the banks would be the “best way” to shed light on the reasoning behind their decision to close the accounts with Oakbay.

Public response

Notable ANC members Ahmed Kathrada and Derek Hanekom called on the ANC to address public concerns relating to Zuma's relationship with the Gupta family. Prior to criticising financial institutions for refusing to do business with Oakbay the trade union COSATU called for president Zuma to distance himself from the Gupta family.

A hacktivist group claiming to be associated with the African chapter of Anonymous launched a number of Distributed Denial of Service attacks on websites associated with the Gupta family in mid-June 2016. Gupta owned companies targeted included the websites of Oakbay Investments, Oakbay Resources and Energy, The New Age, IT firm Sahara, and ANN7.

The South African artist Ayanda Mabulu exhibited a controversial painting criticizing president Zuma's controversial and close relationship with the Guptas. The painting portrayed president Zuma performing an act of anilingus on Atul Gupta in the cockpit of an airplane against a backdrop of the ANC flag.

President Zuma's relationship with the family became a campaign issue that negatively affected the ANC's performance in the 2016 South African municipal elections.

Financial transactions

In October 2016 the South African Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan stated in court documents that the Guptas were implicated in "suspicious transactions worth R6.8 billion." The court documents were filed as part of a high court application explaining why the Minister of Finance could not intervene on the Gupta's behalf to require that South African banks continue to provide services to Gupta owned companies. The documents stated that South African banks were alarmed by the financial dealings of 14 Gupta owned businesses and discontinued services to the family to avoid possible legal implications.

The Gupta's lawyers publicly disputed Gordhan's statement and stated that a number of errors were made including that a number of the disputed transactions regarding one of the financial dealings, the Optimum mine, occurred when the mine was not yet under the control of the family.

An investigation by the South African-based amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism found that the Gupta's benefited from a number of state contracts using their political connections through a sophisticated system of financial dealings totalling up-to R144 million (US$10.6 million) in only one six-month period.