Statement from Oakbay Investments, on behalf of the Gupta family in response to The Sunday Times article 'How Guptas shopped for new minister', 13 March, 2016

Issued on behalf of the Gupta Family 

Johannesburg, South Africa – Sunday 13 March 2016: "There have been an extraordinary number of allegations around the Gupta family in recent weeks, several of which have involved the Finance Ministry. As we have said countless times, our primary focus is on business, not politics (see Sunday Times report).

We challenge the faceless purveyors of these lies to provide evidence of any of these allegations.

To be absolutely clear: there was no meeting at all.

Further, Atul Gupta was not even in South Africa on the date of the alleged meeting.

About Oakbay Investments and the Gupta family

"South Africa has a robust constitution and a strict process governing appointment of Ministers and Deputy Ministers. We have every faith that if anybody tried to abuse power around appointments, they would be rebuffed by our constitution and our strong political leadership."Nazeem Howa, Chief Executive, Oakbay Investments

Oakbay Investments (oakbayinvestments.co.za) has invested more than R10 billion in South Africa. Oakbay Investments is 100% transparent - all numbers have been verified by one of the world’s most respected accountancy firms.

 The Gupta family has a 23-year history of strong business performance and turnaround skills. This strong performance has come almost entirely via successful activity in the private sector, with less than 1% of the Group’s revenue coming from government contracts.

 Sector diversification has also enabled Oakbay companies to deliver consistent growth and job creation throughout times of both economic boom and bust. For example, 47,000 jobs have been lost in South Africa’s mining sector between 2012 and 2015. In contrast, Oakbay’s mining companies have created 3500 of jobs in the sector.

Statement issued by Oakbay Investments, 13 March 2016