Text of the letter from Oakbay Investments CEO Nazeem Howa to staff, Friday, 8 April 2016

Dear all,

I wanted to take the time to update you all on some important decisions that were made yesterday. Decisions that were made with your best interests at heart.

To this end, it is  with deep regret, that following a period of sustained political attack on the Gupta family and our businesses, and by extension, you our employees, we have come to the conclusion that it is time for the Gupta family to step down from all executive and non-executive positions. n doing this, the family hope to end the campaign against Oakbay and save all of our jobs.

This follows the unexplained decisions by several of our banking partners and our auditors to cease working with us, and the continued press coverage of false allegations.

Oakbay's current executive committee and the CEOs of each of the businesses will continue to oversee the day to day management and running of the business and all portfolio companies going forward.

The closure of our bank accounts has made it virtually impossible to continue to do business in South Africa. Without bank accounts we may find ourselves in a position where we are unable to pay you, our valued employees. We are doing everything in our power to ensure this does not happen. We find it totally unacceptable that you, our employees, and your families could potentially have to suffer as a result of the political campaign against us.

To this end we have been in direct contact with the Ministries of Labour, Finance, Mineral Resources and the Office of the President to express deep disappointment over the decisions of our banking partners and to make it very clear that livelihoods are at risk if we are unable to restore these important banking relationships.

We are confident that through the family's decision to distance themselves from the business banking relationships will soon be restored, salaries will be paid and business will continue as normal.

The success of our business is down to all of your hard work. We need to remain strong as a team during this difficult time. We have every confidence that normalcy will soon be restored.

Nazeem Howa

CEO Oakbay Investments

Source: TimesLive. See original story here.