Absa caught up in ‘hijack’ tangle

[miningmx.com] — AS the High Court looks set to hear arguments on Monday on the urgent application by Kalahari Resources for the removal of Sandi Majali and seven other people as directors, banking group Absa has become the latest blue-chip company finding itself caught up in the alleged hijacking.

This comes after Anglo American discovered its representatives had been removed from its 74%-owned Siyanda Chrome, an entity that now also falls under Majali’s control.

Miningmx has established that Absa may be the rightful owner of Majali’s 85% stake in Siyanda Mining Corp, after he ceded the shares to the bank.

“No, he (Majali) does not own any shares in Siyanda Mining Corp – those shares are now owned by Absa,” Siyanda Resources director Xolile Mazabane replied to Miningmx’s enquiry.

Siyanda Resources owns 10% of Siyanda Mining Corp, whose only asset is the 8.33% stake in Kalahari Resources. The latter in turn owns 40% of Kgalagadi Manganese jointly with ArcelorMittal (50%) and the Industrial development Corporation (IDC), which owns 10%.

It emerged last week that Kalahari Resources chairperson Daphne Mashile-Nkosi and her only fellow director were removed from the Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Office (Cipro) records and replaced with Majali and seven people, who are not known to Kalahari Resources.

Majali’s legal representatives have confirmed that Majali and the seven are indeed now directors of Kalahari Resources. “My client (Majali) has been trying to sell his shares for over two years,” said Philip Webster of Webster Legal. He admitted not knowing who appointed Majali and the seven to Kalahari Resources’ board.

‘Repeated illegal attempts’

However, Majali’s partners at Siyanda Mining Corp say he no longer owns any shares in the company. “It is a matter of public record in a High Court application that Majali ceded his 85% shareholding in Siyanda Mining Corporation to Absa and Absa is now the rightful owner of those shares,” said Mazabane.

Absa has asked for some time to respond to a query on whether it owns the shares and if so, what it intends to do with the stake.

Mazabane said Majali has repeatedly and fraudulently attempted to “illegally remove directors and illegally offer and solicit offers for the sale of Siyanda Mining Corp’s shares in Kalahari Resources without proper approval of other shareholders, and (to make) illegal attempts to liquidate the company”.

He apparently has gone as far as “removing” Siyanda Mining Corp’s own directors and replacing them with himself and his lawyer Webster.

“This is yet another of many and sustained attempts by Majali to fraudulently remove legally appointed directors and appoint individuals that have never been submitted to nor approved by the current board of directors of Siyanda Mining Corp,” said Mazabane.