Donwald Pressly
Axed Pamodzi Gold liquidator Enver Motala has been removed from the panel of approved liquidators and trustees by the Master of the High Court in Pretoria, who said he had the responsibility to ensure that “persons appointed have unblemished characters and can be relied upon to deal with the Master’s office with absolute honesty”.
In June this year Motala applied to the high court to be reinstated as a joint Pamodzi liquidator and insisted that his removal by the Master was “irregular and unlawful”. He was removed on May 23 together with KPMG’s Gavin Gainsford.
After his removal – now confirmed in the Pretoria district – the four remaining liquidators removed Aurora Empowerment Systems, headed by President Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma, as the preferred bidder and manager of Pamodzi Gold’s Grootvlei and Orkney mines. These mines suffered neglect under Aurora’s management, including the non-payment of mineworkers for months on end.
Yesterday Motala’s lawyer, Petro van Gaalen, released a statement from Motala: “I am consulting with my attorneys on an appropriate challenge to what appears to be a clear breach of my constitutional rights.” He said that “no finding” had been made that he had failed to discharge his duties in terms of the relevant legislation, the Companies Act.
In a letter addressed to Motala, Deputy Master Christine Rossouw reported that on August 17 this year, Motala had attended “at the Master’s office” and gave evidence under oath.
Noting that Motala had a history of not disclosing at least one count of theft and 93 counts of fraud and that documentation from the Department of Internal Affairs (later home affairs) disclosed that Enver Mohamed Dawood and Enver Mohamed Motala “are the same person” and that in 1981 the department had consented to Dawood changing his name to Motala, the Master said “both you and Mr Dawood were born on September 20, 1953”.
In the course of that testimony he had denied that he had “ever been convicted of theft or fraud”, that he had no idea of the identity of a person referred to in a newspaper article – as Dawood – who shared an ID number with him. That person had been described by the newspaper as having convictions for fraud and theft.
In addition, Motala denied knowing “who Mr Enver Mohamed Dawood is” and knew nothing of theft and fraud attributed to Dawood, the Master reported.
The Master also noted that the conduct of the liquidators of Pamodzi had “increasingly become a matter of public concern”. The Master noted that concerns included “the cessation of mining activities, accounting for the gold from the mines, the dismantling and removal of mining equipment and the poverty and destitution of mine employees”.
The Master noted that he was concerned about the award of the contract to Aurora Empowerment Systems, “a company which appeared to be undercapitalised, unable to afford to run the mines property and unable to come up with the money to satisfy its financial commitments to the Pamodzi liquidators.”
The Master reported that there were rumours of money that had passed between Motala and his company, SBT Trust, and Aurora. On August 25 this year the master wrote to Motala and queried the payments totalling R1.3 million made between February 2, 2010, and May 3, 2010. The Master also asked Motala to explain a payment of R3m “affected to Aurora on February 2, 2010 by you or SBT”.
On March 29 this year Motala had responded to queries about the payments to Aurora to the Master as well as the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Jeff Radebe, in which he said the liquidators had been approached by Aurora for financial assistance to pay outstanding wages and salaries of employees on the East Rand mine – Grootvlei – and “in the hope of Aurora securing funding to conclude the transaction with the joint provisional liquidators”.
The letter claimed that the R3m was repaid by Aurora to SBT in various tranches starting in February 2010 and ending in May last year.
Motala said that in January last year, the provisional liquidators were approached by Aurora for financial assistance. None of the other liquidators “were amenable to assisting Aurora” so SBT Trust decided to assist them “in the interests of the employees and the preservation of the deal that was concluded with Aurora”.
The Master reported that it had taken up the question whether there was a request made by Aurora to the joint provisional liquidators for a loan to pay these salaries and wages. Gainsford, as well as retained liquidators Johan Engelbrecht, Barend Petersen, Deon Botha and Allan Pellow, “have no recollection of any request of that nature. Some of them expressly deny that this occurred”.
“Irrespective of their knowledge or consent, this request and the alleged loan were not drawn to the attention of the Master or creditors.
“At all material time you were causing extensions to be granted to Aurora to honour its financial commitments, while Aurora was obtaining the extensions aforesaid you on your version, were both making loans to and receiving payments from Aurora.”
For these reasons the Master took the decision to remove Motala from the panel of approved liquidators and trustees.
Aurora’s Zuma will testify in Zulu to the North Gauteng High Court on November 2 and 3 during its inquiry into Aurora in terms of the Companies Act. He earlier this month refused to testify in English.
Aurora failed to secure financial backing to recapitalise the Orkey and Grootvlei mines after it took over management in October 2009.