[miningmx.com] — VETERAN businessman Lazarus Zim has severed
another tie with the controversial Gupta family.
Last week, he withdrew Atul Gupta as his alternate director on the board of platinum
producer Northam Platinum. He chairs Northam’s board and his company, Afripalm
Resources, controls the platinum miner through its stake in Mvelaphanda Resources.
An alternate director is a person who is appointed to attend a board meeting on
behalf of the director of a company when the principal director is unable to attend.
Last December, Zim told City Press that he was cutting business ties with the
wealthy Gupta family, which comprises Ajay and younger brothers Atul and Rajesh.
At the time, Zim said he was pulling out of the Guptas’ ventures to focus on
Afripalm’s key projects.
“I am out of The New Age and other [Gupta] businesses. I have limited time
and it’s a question of reprioritising my efforts to focus on key projects. I will
announce these in due course. The separation happened last year [2010],’ Zim told
City Press.
City Press was not able to get a comment from Zim regarding his decision to
withdraw Atul Gupta as his alternate director in Northam, but a Northam
spokesperson said it was Zim’s “discretion’ to appoint or withdraw an alternate
director.
However, Atul Gupta is still a director of Afripalm, in which his family owns a 15%
stake through an investment vehicle, Oakbay Trust. Before pulling out of the daily
newspaper, The New Age, Zim was instrumental in its launch in 2010.
He is the largest shareholder of Afripalm, holding about 30% of the company. Another
key investor in Afripalm is an entity known as Unipalm, which owns 15% of the group.
Unipalm is chaired by communications specialist Thandi Ramathesele, who is a former
general manager of television channel SABC 2.
– City Press
