Johannesburg – The fraud and corruption that shook the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) for much of the last two years appear to be far from over as another multi-billion rand company “hijacking” has emerged.
Mining house Kalahari Resources chairperson Daphne Mashile-Nkosi found out on Wednesday that she, together with her fellow director and brother, have “been removed” as directors of the company.
“We have been unlawfully replaced as directors by eight people we have never even met,” Mashile-Nkosi told Fin24.com on Wednesday.
According to Cipro records obtained by Fin24.com, eight people – led by Sandi Majali – are now directors of Kalahari Resources.
Majali’s legal representatives alerted Mashile-Nkosi to the alleged fraud when they wrote to Kalahari demanding access to its financial records last week.
Kalahari Resources owns 40% of Kgalagadi Manganese, the mining house currently developing an R11bn manganese mine and sinter plant in the Northern Cape, as well as the manganese smelter at Coega in Port Elizabeth.
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) owns 10% of Kgalagadi Manganese while the international arm of ArcelorMittal SA [JSE:ACL] owns the remaining half, having paid $433m (R3.1bn) for the stake in June 2008.
Majali is the businessman who diverted R11m to the ANC’s election coffers in 2003 through “empowerment” company Imvume Resources, in what became the Oilgate scandal. He had recently received a R15m advance on an oil import contract by PetroSA.
Shareholder documents seen by Fin24.com show Majali’s Siyanda Mining Corp is an 8.3% shareholder in Kalahari Resources and that it has no board representation.
As Fin24.com spoke to Mashile-Nkosi at her Kalahari’s Sandton offices, a team of lawyers was receiving instructions to file an urgent high court application at the to relieve the company of its new directors.
“We are laying charges of fraud against all of them and we want to know who appointed them to the board,” said Mashile-Nkosi. A prepared statement was delivered to the Sandton police station on Wednesday by Kalahari legal representatives Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs.
“We have no business dealings with the seven other people that are now apparently directors of Kalahari Recources. We don’t even know them,” said Mashile-Nkosi.
The new Cipro documents show Majali and his new “colleagues” all share an address on Louis Botha Avenue in the north of Johannesburg.
The youngest “director” is a 19-year-old female carrying the Nkosi name.
The hijacking attempt is not going to delay the R3.6bn sinter plant, which is already under construction in Kuruman in the Northern Cape, said Mashile-Nkosi.
The start later this year of the smelter construction at Coega will also not be affected. It is scheduled to be commissioned in 2012. Kalahari expects the construction of the twin shaft mine, which has already started, to proceed smoothly.
“Only a 40% shareholder of Kgalagadi Manganese has been hijacked here. The company itself continues to operate,” said Mashile-Nkosi.
She vowed to fight off the attempt. “I have worked hard for this company, building it from scratch before the major partners came in. Not even the personal tragedy of the loss of my husband could stop me from building this dream.”
- Fin24.com