New date for trust funds case

An application for the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to reverse the attachment of mining rehabilitation funds belonging to two Gupta mines will be heard on May 31.

The High Court in Pretoria made this order‚ by agreement between the parties‚ after the court had allowed the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) to be part of the matter.

The application was made by the trustees of the two R1.7bn rehabilitation trust funds. Thursday had been set down for the court to hear an application by the trustees of the Time Being of the Optimum Mine and the Koornfontein Mine Rehabilitation Trusts.

The trustees wanted the court to reconsider a court order obtained in March, which preserved both rehabilitation trust funds that were held by the Bank of Baroda. The bank left SA in March.

It was ordered that the funds in the trusts would be transferred, with interest, from Baroda to Nedbank for safekeeping. The NDPP had sought to preserve this money‚ set aside by legislation and only to be used for the rehabilitation of the mines at the end of their operating life‚ on a suspicion that the funds had been irregularly used with the blessing of the trustees.

Nedbank will keep the money — about R1.4bn for Optimum and R280m in the Koornfontein — until a forfeiture order has been granted.

Before Thursday’s hearing‚ lawyers for the trustees for both mines objected to Outa’s involvement, claiming that the lobby group had no interest in the matter and that it had filed its application late.