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Jacques Roux appointed CEO of Gupta owned Oakbay Resources

FILE PHOTO: Ajay Gupta and younger Brother Atul Gupta, Oakbay MD Jagdish Parekh with Duduzane Zuma at a one on one interview with Business Day. Picture Credit: Martin Rhodes
FILE PHOTO: Ajay Gupta and younger Brother Atul Gupta, Oakbay MD Jagdish Parekh with Duduzane Zuma at a one on one interview with Business Day. Picture Credit: Martin Rhodes

Oakbay Resources and Energy has appointed Jacques Roux as CEO‚ a month after Varun Gupta’s resignation.

Oakbay Resources finance director Trevor Scott has been acting CEO for the past month since Varun Gupta‚ along with his uncle‚ Atul Gupta (who was the group’s chairman)‚ and President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma announced their resignations‚ following “a sustained political attack on the company“.

Roux was formerly CEO of Gupta-family-owned mining contractor JIC Mining Services.

“In June 2015‚ he was entrusted with executive accountability for the Oakbay Group’s coal mining operations at Brakfontein Colliery near Delmas‚” Oakbay said on Tuesday.

No permanent appointment has been announced yet for chairman. Lead independent nonexecutive director Terence Rensen was appointed acting independent non-executive chairman following Atul Gupta’s departure.

On the same day the Guptas resigned‚ Oakbay Resources issued a statement confirming First National Bank and Absa had terminated their services to the group.

“The group’s remaining local banking service provider has given notice regarding the termination of their banking services on June 6‚” Oakbay said.

This bank was not named‚ but appears to be Sasfin.

Tuesday’s statement was issued via the JSE’s stock exchange news service by Sasfin Capital which is still listed as the group’s sponsoring broker. Sasfin has also given Oakbay Resources notice it will no longer represent it.

On April 21‚ Oakbay Resources averted suspension by the JSE by signing SizweNtsalubaGobodo as its auditors following KPMG’s decision to no longer associate itself with Gupta-family-owned businesses‚ due to allegations of their corrupt relationship with Zuma.

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