An urgent application this week to halt the Optimum business rescue practitioners from appointing a management company to get involved in running the coal mine was struck off the court roll.
Business rescue practitioner Louis Klopper said the Pretoria High Court this week heard an urgent application brought by Pushpaveni Govender, an Optimum director.
“She sought an interim order interdicting the business rescue practitioners from implementing any agreement concluded by them with Burgh Group Holdings ... pending another application for the removal of the four business rescue practitioners,” Klopper said.
Govender also sought to have two new business rescue practitioners appointed.
But the judge in the matter struck the application off the roll for lack of urgency.
In another development Klopper announced this week that they had reached a management agreement with Burgh Group Holding to have the group’s operations division, Ezimbiwayo Consulting, give guidance in the turnaround process of both mines.
He said the Burgh Group’s Ezimbiwayo Consulting would pocket 1% of all turnover generated by the formerly Gupta-owned coal mines, Optimum and Koornfontein, that are in business rescue.
This is in terms of a 12-month management agreement contract it reached with the business rescue practitioners that are overseeing the rehabilitation process of the two operations.
“The management agreement has been necessitated [because] the practitioners are lawyers with limited mining knowledge.
“Therefore, the Burgh Group, with its technical expertise, comes as a welcome asset in the operation of the mines,” said Klopper.
Quinton van der Burgh, CEO of Burgh Group Holdings, was quick to point out that: “Ezimbiwayo Consulting is currently operating 10 mines in the coal mining industry – soon to become 15 in June.”
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