business rescue
Optimum Coal: The Guptas’ fightback plan
A roadmap to the Guptas’ expensive legal blitz on Optimum Coal shows they are fighting business rescue every inch of the way, but what they ultimately hope to achieve is not entirely clear
You might wonder what the Guptas are doing with their time these days. That is, after the apparent daily grind of corrupting politicians and capturing state entities came to a sudden end on Valentine’s Day last year, when Jacob Zuma resigned as president and the brothers skipped the country. But you need look no further than SA’s courts to see that they have, in fact, been hard at work. In particular, there has been a buzz of legal activity around the eight Gupta-affiliated businesses that were placed into business rescue a year ago. The legal challenges have focused particularly on Optimum Coal, which has not paid wages since October 2018 and ceased operating two months later. The coal mine was a key asset in the state capture saga. Former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s "State of Capture" report centred on the operation, showing how Eskom forced the then Glencore-owned mine into business rescue before helping (financially and otherwise) the Guptas’ Tegeta Exploration & Resource...
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