Aurora directors’ appeal is denied
Guilt confirmed by court
FATHER and son team and former directors of the controversial Aurora Empowerment Systems, Solly and Fazel Bhana yesterday moved a step closer to sequestration.
The North Gauteng High Court yesterday dismissed an application to appeal an earlier ruling that they were liable for R35 million in the Aurora saga.
In the appeal application, the two had already pleaded poverty, saying neither they nor their family would be in the financial position to pay the amount.
“Today, justice was served for the hundreds of Aurora employees, and this judgment is an indication that the others involved in this matter will not be able to hide from justice,” Gideon du Plessis, Solidarity’s general secretary, said.
The pair had consulted for Aurora when the company took over Pamodzi’s liquidated Orkney and Grootvlei mines in 2009, and were responsible for running the mines.
The court previously found that the Bhana’s had received R35m from Aurora irregularly.
Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann said the applicants’ assertions that there was no proof of insolvency upon the strength which judgments could be granted against them could therefore not hold water.
“It is common cause that they received payments of substantial amounts, whether as purported repayments of their loans or otherwise,” Bertelsmann said.
Attached
The sheriff of the court had tried to attach R15m after a court ruling that R15m worth of assets belonging to the pair, their family members and close associates including vehicles, furniture and artwork be attached.
The other family members are liable for R20m.
This after the court found that they had unduly benefited from Aurora, after the company repaid “loans” allegedly used to fund the mine takeover.
Some of the loans were repaid with 100 percent interest, while workers went unpaid for several months, it was reported.
Aurora was liquidated in October 2011.
Its directors included former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zondwa Mandela, as well as President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma.
All of them were accused of running down the infrastructure at the mines and causing the loss of more than 5 300 jobs.
Aurora was named the preferred bidder to manage the Pamodzi mines in Gauteng and the North West when the company was liquidated in 2009.
In June, the court found that the actions of all of the Aurora directors made them personally liable for its failure and that they acted “indisputably reckless” and also involved “wilful deception”.
‘Empty shell’
The Pamodzi liquidators wanted the Aurora directors to pay about R1.7 billion after allegedly stripping the mines and selling items like headgear from the shafts as scrap, and for failure to pay the salaries of employees.
Judge Bertelsman in June delivered a scathing judgment in which he called Aurora an “empty shell” which was insolvent at the time that it made a R600m bid for two mines formerly owned by Pamodzi Gold.
“The entire project was and remained a pipe dream,” he said.
Despite the court ruling, it will probably take years for them to compensate the 5 300 employees who lost their jobs when the directors failed to raise the required funds to get the mines up and running.
The mines then fell into disrepair and were ravaged by illegal miners.
The directors have indicated that they will appeal the judgment.
The case is expected to be heard on Thursday next week.