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Johannesburg - On Friday two teams of judicial managers were appointed to take over control of Pamodzi Gold's Free State and East Rand mines.
The managers will assume control of the mines on Monday, after which they will prepare a report for the court on the state of the businesses.
Meanwhile Peter Steenkamp, Pamodzi Gold's chief executive, explained in court documents that the long-awaited R200m loan from Best Rock had eventually been realised just as he voluntarily surrendered control of the company.
Steenkamp believed the delay in obtaining the loan was a direct consequence of the company's collapse.
The money was however now available and part of it would be at the disposal of the provisional judicial managers for operating the two mines to end-April.
Steenkamp had attached apparent proof of this to his application for provisional judicial management of the two mines to the Pretoria High Court this week
A letter from legal firm Alberts Bekker Vorster Pillay & Partners was also attached to the court documents, which indicated that a R200m Venezuelan government bond on Best Rock's behalf had been received and that Standard Bank had verified the bond's authenticity.
The company had submitted the application mainly to block the increasing numbers of applications for liquidation following its Orkney mine's provisional liquidation a while ago. It had since had to reach settlements with a number of new applicants that were eyeing its remaining mines.
"I am convinced that the mechanism of judicial management is the only thing that will make it possible to obtain the funding required to return all operations to their full potential," says Steenkamp.
If the mines are liquidated, this will spell the "end of the workers and the communities".
Orkney's final liquidation will be considered on April 14 and the other two mines could be placed under final judicial management on May 26.
The two legal processes give Pamodzi at least a breather to concentrate fully on its funding campaign, after having repeatedly to stamp out fires over the past few months.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.