Company shareholding dispute spills into court
MARTIN Simmons, the major shareholder at a diamond cleaning firm, Ke Nako, has approached the High Court seeking an order to compel the company’s minority shareholders to attend an extraordinary general meeting to resolve a long-running ownership wrangle.
Simmons approached the High Court in Bulawayo on September 11 seeking an order compelling the company’s minority shareholders Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga and Barbara Mutambanengwe to attend an extraordinary general meeting within 14 days to iron out their differences after he was allegedly locked out of the firm.
He also cited chief registrar of companies and other stakeholders to attend the meeting. Through his lawyer, David Mhiribidi, Simmons, who claims to have a 70% stake in the company, is also seeking an order to bring minority shareholders to account for the company's activities since its inception in 2015.
“I seek an order requesting from the company (Ke Nako) secretaries, who held office prior to this meeting, sight of the minute book for all meetings of shareholders and the board of directors, which minutes are required to have been kept in terms of sections 181 and 205 of the Companies Act (Chapter 24:03),” Simmons said in the application.
Among other things, Simmons is seeking an order to force Nzarayapenga and Mutambanengwe to present details of contracts Ke Nako entered into from 2015 to date, a list of all movable assets belonging to the company and a list and copies of licences the company holds.
Simmons is also seeking an order compelling Nzarayapenga and Mutambanengwe to present financial statements of the company for the “current year to date detailing all revenues received and amounts expended for this period”.
He is also seeking an order compelling the president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe to appoint a lawyer of not less than 10 years’ experience to chair the extraordinary general meeting.
He claimed that he had to seek recourse at the High Court because his business partners had ignored previous calls for an annual general meeting or for a share of his dividend.
In his founding affidavit, Simmons said he single-handedly injected $600 000 as a loan to kick-start the company and is yet to be refunded. Simmons said he had been barred from entering the company premises or have access to the books of accounts since 2015.