City Press reports that court papers show that a campaign to unseat the business rescue practitioners running eight Gupta-owned companies is now being led by a newly created shelf company that is buying up other creditors’ invoices.  

Direko Mining and Exploration launched an application to remove Kurt Knoop and Johan-Louis Klopper last week after its attorney initially threatened to bring a similar application on behalf of Optimum’s workers.  Direko has denied it was created to acquire the Optimum mine.  It is asking for the practitioners to be removed due to “reasonable apprehension” that they are linked to the Gupta family and will run the business rescue of their interconnected empire in the family’s interests.  In their place, Direko is asking for two new practitioners of its choosing to be installed.  Direko’s attorney is Ruann Kruger, who had earlier struck a deal with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) branch in Middelburg to remove Klopper and Knoop on the company’s behalf.  However, the NUM branch did not have the blessing of the union and that bid has not materialised.  Knoop commented the NUM branch, which was immediately countered by the union’s head office, “suggests that influence has been brought to bear on the Middelburg branch ... to provide the resolution”.

• Read this report by Dewald Van Rensburg in full at Fin24

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