#NazeemHowa quits Oakbay Investments

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Johannesburg - Oakbay Investments Chief Executive Nazeem Howa has quit the company with immediate effect following a week of high drama involving the Gupta family and its companies. The company and Howa said on Monday the CEO’s resignation was due to ill-health. The resignation of Howa comes after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan filed an explosive affidavit in the Pretoria High Court on why he would not intervene on the decisions of the banks to cut ties with the Guptas. In his affidavit, Gordhan attached a series of letters he exchanged with Howa on the banks debacle. Gordhan had insisted he cannot, by law, intervene on decisions of the banks.

But Howa had implored him to intervene in order to save the jobs of thousands of Oakbay employees.

In the declaratory court application the finance minister revealed that there were 72 suspicious transactions amounting to R6.83 billion on the Guptas’ accounts.

This led to the Financial Intelligence Centre to raise alarm bells.

But the lawyer for the Guptas Gert van Merwe told Independent Media earlier on Monday that the application by Gordhan was ill-founded.

He would reveal at a later why the banks really closed the accounts of the Guptas.

He said the banks did not want to disclose the real reasons for shutting down the accounts.

Howa has become the first top official in Oakbay to quit after the Gordhan fallout.

However, Oakbay did not cite the recent developments as the reason for his resignation.

Both parties said it was due to ill-health.

They did not disclose the nature of the illness.

Parties in Parliament have called for the investigation of the Guptas by the police and the Hawks for the suspicious transactions of R6.83bn.

They have laid criminal charges with the police for money laundering, fraud and racketeering against the family.

Political Bureau