ICT 'forged Kumba application'

The falsified documents were apparently submitted with ICT’s application for the very same mineral rights that Kumba had applied for, but Kumba’s application had failed.

The rights were awarded to ICT at the insistence of Jacinto Rocha, the then deputy director-general for the regulation of mineral resources, despite recommendations from all his senior officials that the application should be rejected.

The application was for rights over a 21.4% stake in Kumba’s iron ore mine at Sishen after ArcelorMittal, who had owned the rights, had neglected to convert these rights into new-order rights – which meant that the rights had reverted to the state.

Rocha’s decision, which was ratified by Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu the week before last, had tarnished the image of South Africa's mineral dispensation.

In some 800 pages of court papers that Kumba submitted to the High Court in Pretoria last week, it argued that ICT’s application to acquire the mineral rights had been accompanied by a trail of fraud and corruption.

Proof was submitted to support the allegations.

Falsified documents

ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) wanted to pay R800m for ICT’s rights, and had concluded a black economic empowerment deal worth R9bn with all the parties involved, all of whom have strong ANC connections.

A total 50% of ICT belongs to Jagdish Parekh, a confidant and friend of President Jacob Zuma and his son Duduzane. Kumba’s court documents argue that:

- The prescribed application form was not included when ICT’s application for the mineral rights was lodged at the provisional office of the Kimberley Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) on May 4 last year;

- ICT’s application contains falsified copies of title deeds of farms on which mineral rights had been awarded, which had clearly been copied from Kumba's application;

- Prospecting rights awarded to ICT were on farms that were part of the Sishen property, but for which ICT had not applied. Kumba had in fact applied for mineral rights on this land, the remaining portion of the farm 468; and

- Six documents that, according to the checklists, were part of the application could not have been there because they were signed after the date on which the application was submitted.

Kumba submitted its application for the mineral rights on Thursday, April 30.

Robert Botha, Kumba's head of legal affairs, said in a sworn statement submitted to court last week that the unavoidable conclusion was that ICT had illegally gained access to Kumba’s application in order to copy portions of it over the long weekend from April 30 to May 4 2009. ICT had used at least some of Kumba’s application as a basis for preparing its own application.

The evidence showed that ICT had been informed that Kumba had delivered its application to the Kimberley office on April 30 and that ICT had then hastily prepared an application for a prospecting right, according to Botha’s statement.

Despite its access to Kumba’s application, ICT had not been able to complete its application over the long weekend.

The incomplete application was delivered to the Kimberley DMR on Monday May 4 so that the date stamp could be affixed to it, and after that the missing documents had been added, said Botha in his statement.

ICT’s application had been submitted by advocate Phemelo Sehunelo, a Kimberley lawyer with interests in the diamond industry.

The DMR’s provincial manager in Kimberley, Pieter Swart, initially thought that ICT was applying for prospecting rights for diamonds, and received the application on that basis.

When he subsequently realised that it dealt with iron ore on land where Sishen was already mining iron ore, he recommended that the application be rejected.

Two senior officials in the DMR’s head office, the director tasked with licensing and legal compliance and the chief director tasked with mineral regulation, had also recommended that ICT’s application be rejected.

- Sake24.com

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