Aurora: A legacy of lies

Khulubuse Zuma and his fellow directors of Aurora Empowerment Systems took over two mines, Grootvlei on Johannesburg’s east rand and Orkney in the North West, from embattled mining company, Pamodzi in 2009. They boasted about having more than $250-million available for running the mines in a deal designed to save jobs. But shortly after this they were unable to pay salaries. Zuma stepped in and coughed up R35-million. It was at that point that he became liable for a portion of the costs, the court found.

The other Aurora directors received a tongue lashing from Pretoria high court Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann last year when he said the directors “vastly exaggerated” their bid to buy the two mines. They had claimed the company would raise R600million for the purchase and a further R300-million to become operational — in addition to providing scholarships to students in the surrounding communities. None of this ever happened.

Although Zuma was not found to have acted fraudulently in his dealings with the company, his former partners — Solly, Fazel and Zubeida Bhana and Yaseen Theba — were provisionally sequestrated this week. An application to make this final is scheduled to be heard next month.

Trade union Solidarity’s Gideon du Plessis said: “That [settlement] agreement will haunt him because any business dealings he’s involved in from now will be scrutinised. We give him credit because the court found that he was not involved in any fraud and now he’s the fall guy. But he’s not doing it for the workers, he’s doing it for himself.”