The man in the middle

State-owned arms company Denel stands accused of

allowing the Guptas access to potentially lucrative arms
contracts. Deal 1: As part of Project Hoefyster
building Badger armoured vehicles, Denel awarded a
R400 million contract to VR Laser, a company in which
the Guptas Oakbay Investments and Duduzane Zumas
Mabengela Investments hold indirect minority stakes.
Deal 2: Then, in January this year, Denel established
Denel Asia, a joint venture company with VR Laser Asia,
a seemingly independent company based in Hong Kong.
Despite Denel Asias Hong Kong registration documents

51%

Deal 2:
Denel Asia
(Hong Kong)

Denel

listing Ajay Guptas oldest son, Kamal Singhala Gupta,

as a director, Denel denies that the Guptas have any
stake in the new joint venture deal. The man who
connects them all together is Johannesburg
businessman, Salim Essa is a Gupta family associate
with business ties to executives at several state-owned
entities, including Transnet and Eskom. Hes also a
major beneciary of the Guptas Tegeta Exploration &
Resources, which recently bought Eskom coal supplier
Optimum Coal - securities registers indicate that he
paid just R20 million for his R473 million stake in Tegeta
Deal 1: R12.7 billion
Project Hoefyster
R400 million
VR Lasers slice
of the deal

49%

VR Laser Asia
(Hong Kong)
Kamal
Singhala Gupta
(Director)

64.9%

VR Laser

Elgasolve

Oakbay
Investments

Mabengela
Investments

Gupta family

Duduzane
Zuma

100%
100%

Salim Essa

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