Gupta sale is on
“Those are the eight companies placed under business rescue in February last year from a resolution caused by the so-called unbanking of the Gupta family and their businesses. It was management of the Oakbay group that got in contact with my partner to ask for advice on what to do,” said Van Niekerk.
He said the choice was to either liquidate the companies or place them under business rescue to see whether they could be rescued.
But, he added, “That [rescuing the companies] was never really an option because what’s the point of trying to rescue the companies, get banking facilities and what not just to give it back to the Guptas. That would defeat the purpose,” said Van Niekerk.
He also confirmed that all the Gupta properties registered in the name of these companies had been placed into a business rescue plan and were being sold off.
“And again, there are creditors that need to be paid. So properties and assets are being sold to raise money to pay off the creditors. That’s what you call a structured winding down of the company. But the plan, with Islandsite, must be implemented. There are a bunch of creditors like the Bank of Baroda … Well, you know, the plan is to sell the properties. Make no mistake, the Gupta associates aren’t making this happen without a fight,” Van Niekerk said.
Department of justice and constitutional development spokesperson Crispin Phiri told the M&G that the government has petitioned the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ratify mutual assistance agreements and extradition treaties signed by former justice minister Michael Masutha in 2017. This is to allow the agreements, which are international treaties, to be part of the country’s domestic laws.
“Whether or not these instruments get exercised would be informed by whatever investigative work is done by our law enforcement agencies including the NPA or the Hawks. On our side it would largely be administrative work,” he said.
But this does not signal that the state could recover any money if ever the Guptas were to be brought to book.