Court to rule in Blyvoor battle
THE High Court in Johannesburg is expected to rule tomorrow on whether the purchase of Blyvooruitzicht mine by Goldrich Holdings remains valid despite it missing several payment deadlines.
Blyvoor’s liquidators argue that the agreements have lapsed, which would allow them to find alternative buyers. The mine’s processing plant, which contains gold-bearing material “worth millions”, is seen as the most attractive asset.
Shaft five, which was still operational when Blyvoor went into liquidation in August last year, has since flooded.
Goldrich, a shadowy company run by Thulani Ngubane and Fazel Bhana, key players behind Aurora Empowerment Systems, bought Blyvoor in December. According to court documents, Goldrich has failed to make payments on time and stands accused of assetstripping, the illegal sale of gold from Blyvoor and money laundering.
Bonginkosi Mthethwa, the sole director of Goldrich, has denied all the allegations. He said in court documents the liquidators “never” had a problem with late payments and failed to disclose a “huge operating expense” related to the mine, namely the pumping of water from shaft five.
The running costs at Blyvoor amount to about R5-million a month, the documents show. Anglo Gold Ashanti took over water pumping at two other Blyvoor shafts in August last year to prevent the flooding of its adjacent shafts.
Goldrich applied for business rescue at the end of February, about a week after its shareholders — Ngubane, Mthethwa and Bhana — allegedly agreed to sell shares in Goldrich to Ramharakh Mining. Lawyers acting for Ramharakh said in court documents that Goldrich failed to provide evidence that it paid R11.4-million to liquidators, as the sale agreement required. They demanded repayment of a R2-million deposit.
Mahier Tayob, the business rescue practitioner who is now in control of Goldrich, flagged certain suspected fraudulent transactions “of a substantial amount” to the South African Revenue Service.
Tayob is opposing the liquidators’ application, saying they should allow him “the opportunity to do my work and refrain from trying to snatch the asset for their benefit to the detriment of Goldrich’s various other creditors”.
Goldrich stands accused of the illegal sale of gold and money laundering
Blyvoor’s liquidators have been trying since January to get rid of Goldrich and regain full control of Blyvoor’s assets. They obtained an urgent interdict against Goldrich in March, preventing it from removing scrap metal or other assets from the mine and blocking the removal of any gold or gold-bearing material from the premises.
The allegations at Blyvoor mirror the liquidation of Pamodzi, when Aurora took control of its Grootvlei and Orkney mines in 2009. Aurora failed to pay workers and its directors, who included Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zondwa Mandela, and President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, are facing claims of nearly R2-billion by the Pamodzi estate for alleged asset-stripping and illegal gold sales.