Oakbay denied leave to appeal

DIRECTORS of Gupta-owned Oakbay have been denied leave to appeal against a court order instructing them to allow business rescue practitioners (BRPs) access to the company’s Sandton offices‚ ending a desperate bid by them to deny access to the premises.

A full bench of the Pretoria High Court heard arguments on April 23 and delivered judgment yesterday.

Oakbay also filed a court bid on Wednesday to stop the business rescue practitioners from having a shareholders meeting next week‚ where the rescue plans for the Gupta businesses could be adopted.

After two months of eight Gupta companies being under business rescue‚ Oakbay’s chief executive, Ronica Ragavan, and other senior managers barred the BRPs – Louis Klopper and Kurt Knoop – from entering the premises.

This forced them to bring an urgent application on April 10 as they required access to documents held at the Oakbay offices to continue running the eight companies – which include the Optimum and Koornfontein coal mines that supply Eskom with coal.

The court ruled in favour of the BRPs on April 13‚ but Ragavan and the other directors lodged an appeal‚ which was dismissed on April 17.

They then lodged a further appeal with the deputy judge-president.

“The majority of the business rescue entities are involved in the supply or rendering of services on behalf of the people of South Africa‚” Judge Philemon Tsoka said in his judgment yesterday. He said this was particularly true in respect of coal supply to Eskom.

“It is in the interest of the entire country [that these entities be rescued].

“It is therefore undisputed that the rescue practitioners in executing their duties are performing a public and statutory duty beneficial to the people of South Africa‚” he said.

To complete this work‚ they would need access to the offices.

Klopper at the time of the urgent application on April 10 said the reason for the application by Oakbay‚ and for barring access to its premises‚ was that the BRPs had started asking “uncomfortable questions about some suspect transactions”.

Tsoka also touched on the Charles King SA transaction in which R66-million was paid by the Swiss-based company as part of a sale of shares agreement for Tegeta‚ the parent company of Optimum and Koornfontein mines.

Charles King SA’s sole director Amin Al Zarooni is a Dubai businessman who has been strongly linked to the Guptas.

Klopper has previously said questions the BRPs asked over the Charles King SA transaction‚ which allegedly contravened Exchange Control Regulations and was flagged by the Treasury‚ were also why Oakbay and the Guptas wanted to get rid of the BRPs.

The BRPs are facing a veritable onslaught of legal challenges.

Oakbay had launched an application to have them removed, Klopper said last month. The matter is yet to be heard by the courts.

A new application has also been brought by Gupta mines chief executive George van der Merwe to have them removed. He accuses them of being incompetent. –