Major player in Tsitsikamma wind farm wound up

WATT Energy, a major player in the multibillion-rand Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm (TCWF) project, has been wound up.

A falling-out between directors and a R19-million-plus debt to a partner company led to the downfall of Watt Energy, which is central to the R2.9-billion wind farm project being built on amaMfengu community land at Wittebosch.

The amaMfengu were relocated by the apartheid regime in 1977 to Ciskei but were granted the return of their ancestral land after 1994.

The late Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Mike Mcebisi Msizi, who was born in the area, started Watt Energy and drove the renewable energy project that also aimed to benefit the impoverished community.

He died in 2012 but his wife, Nomthandazo Msizi, and son, Litha, inherited his 70% of the shares in the company.

Msizi’s business partner, Mark Scheepers, held the remaining 30%.

The wind farm, which will consist of about 31 wind turbines, was forecast to be operational by late 2016.

It was at the behest of Watt Energy’s majority shareholders, the Msizi family, as well as its energy company partner, Cennergi, that Watt Energy was liquidated.

According to court papers, TCWF was funded by way of a bank loan of approximately R263-million and by shareholder contributions.

Watt Energy could only make its equity contribution via a loan from Cennergi in 2013.

In terms of the agreement, Cennergi would pay Watt Energy’s equity contribution directly to TCWF.

All Watt Energy was obliged to do was furnish Cennergi with its signed and audited financial statements within 60 business days of its financial year end.

But according to court papers, business relations between Scheepers and the Msizis were so strained that the company became dysfunctional. It could not even produce audited financial statements.

Cennergi cancelled the loan agreement and demanded repayment of some R19-million.

In separate applications, Cennergi and the Msizis asked the High Court to wind up Watt Energy, which Judge Jeremy Pickering did this week.

Cennergi refused to comment on the effect on the TCWF project.