More Gupta Employees Have Not Been Paid

Workers at a third Gupta-owned mine have not been paid, as have employees at the family's former media houses.
Employees and contractors of the Optimum Coal Mine in Hendrina, owned by the controversial Gupta family, demonstrate with a placard reading 'Guptas - stop gambling with our lives' in front of the gates of the mine in Hendrina, South Africa, on February 22, 2018.
Employees and contractors of the Optimum Coal Mine in Hendrina, owned by the controversial Gupta family, demonstrate with a placard reading 'Guptas - stop gambling with our lives' in front of the gates of the mine in Hendrina, South Africa, on February 22, 2018.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images

Another Gupta-owned mine has failed to pay its employees, and workers at The New Age (TNA) and ANN7, formerly owned by the family, have reportedly also not been paid.

Workers at the Gupta-owned Optimum coal mine in Mpumalanga downed tools last week over nonpayment issues and uncertainty over the future of the mine, causing Parliament's portfolio committee on mineral resources to call for the mineral resources department to intervene.

Koornfontein mine, also Gupta-owned, has also reportedly not paid its workers.

Now, Business Day reported that the situation is the same at Shiva Uranium mine in the North West, also owned by the Guptas.

Employees reportedly said they have not been paid their February salaries, and that the company said this was the case because it did not have a bank.

The Guptas' accounts were closed by all major South African banks, and the last bank willing to do business with them, the Bank of Baroda, also wants to close their accounts and leave the country.

"They told us that they have an international bank and the funds have to be converted from dollars to rands and that the process takes long," a worker told Business Day.

On Monday eNCA reported that TNA employees have also not been paid. Journalists at TNA and ANN7 reportedly said they were told this was due to a technical problem. TNA staff are reportedly considering downing tools.

The Guptas sold their media assets to Mzwanele Manyi last year. He could not be reached for comment, eNCA reported.

The Guptas are out of the country, and the Hawks have declared Ajay Gupta a fugitive from the law after he failed to hand himself over following raids at the Gupta residences earlier this month.

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