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Cape Town - The Gupta family is selling all of its shares in its South African businesses for the good of the country, they said in a statement on Saturday.
"We announce today our intention to sell all of our shareholding in South Africa by the end of the year," the family said.
The owners of the company, which started as a small computer enterprise on the East Rand, stepped down from executive and non-executive positions in April.
Under the umbrella of Oakbay Investments, the company's interest included mining and media.
Saturday's announcement comes after a long period of criticism which peaked this year when the Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas claimed they had offered him the job of finance minister.
Another former MP Vytjie Mentor brought President Jacob Zuma into the mix, claiming she had been offered the public enterprises portfolio by the Guptas while Zuma was in their house.
The Guptas denied this.
The family said that since they stepped down, the local management team had grown the businesses.
Turnover and profits showed good growth and more jobs were created.
"As a family, we now believe that the time is right for us to exit our shareholding of the South African businesses which we believe will benefit our existing employees, and lead to further growth in the businesses.
"As such, we announce today our intention to sell all of our shareholding in South Africa by the end of the year."
They were talking to several international buyers and would make further announcements soon.
"We believe that this decision is in the best interests of our business, the country and our colleagues."
The family has also had many of their South African bank accounts frozen and majority Gupta-owned Oakbay Resources & Energy faced suspension from the JSE after failing to secure a sponsor.
