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Cape Town - The trusts of two coal mines owned by the Gupta family will go to court in early December to oppose the recent freezing of the mines’ rehabilitation funds.
Last week Tuesday anti-corruption advocacy group the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) won an urgent interim interdict in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to freeze some R1.75bn in rehabilitation funds from the Gupta-owned Optimum and Koornfontein coal mines.
The funds, meant to manage environmental damage caused by mining, were kept in an account at the Bank of Baroda.
But when the bank won a separate court case to close its Gupta-related accounts, it was unclear what would happen to the rehabilitation trusts.
OUTA then lodged their urgent interdict to keep the trusts at the Bank of Baroda for the time being, which was granted.
In a media statement on Monday, OUTA said its lawyers had received a notice of intention to oppose the ring-fencing of the funds.
The notice did not include any details besides the names and addresses of the lawyers who would act on behalf of the trustees of the two mines.
The matter of what will now happen to these funds, and to what extent a court has jurisdiction over where they can be kept or moved, will be heard on December 7.
Ben Theron, OUTA’s chief operating officer said the group’s legal team had “prepared a strong case to keep the rehab funds frozen”.
“It is important that actions of this nature be seen through to the end so as to ensure that the rehabilitation funds land up in the right hands and that they are used for their sole purpose of restoring the damaged environment," he said in a statement.
Frozen in place for now
OUTA previously argued that the R1.75bn in funds should be frozen lest it “find its way into the Gupta family’s pockets”.
According to the interim order granted against the two mine trusts on Tuesday 26 September, the Bank of Baroda has been ordered to hold the funds in interest-bearing accounts, while the trustees of the two trusts have been barred from “directly or indirectly” dealing with the funds in any way.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has said he would abide by the decision of the court.
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