[miningmx.com] — THE Companies and Intellectual Property Office (Cipro) has disabled some of its online registration services amid claims directors of Kalahari Resources were removed without their approval.
However, Cipro CEO, Lungile Dukwana, said suspending certain services was part of an upgrade and was not in response to security breaches, the consequences of which should be taken to court and not placed at Cipro’s doorstep, he added.
Last week, Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, founder and chairperson of Kalahari Resources, alleged she and several fellow directors were removed as directors of the mining firm and replaced by other individuals including businessman, Sandi Majali.
Normally, replacement of directors in this manner is preceded by an annual general meeting at which shareholders vote. In this instance, however, no such meeting was called and therefore the removals did not bear shareholder support.
Said Cipro’s Dukwana: “We have been continually upgrading the system and this is one of the upgrades,”. Cipro could not take responsibility for damages companies suffer when external parties manipulate Cipro’s systems because it only keeps the records.
“We have no responsibility to accept on the matter as we are only a notification agency,” said Dukwana. He said companies affected by the unauthorised manipulation of Cipro systems should seek legal recourse.
“How can we accept responsibility? Cipro did not change any records,” said Dukwana. “They were changed by other people on our system. The legal route is the best to take to resolve the matter.”
He said decisions about removing and appointing directors happen in boardrooms. “We are not represented in the boardroom. We only update information on decisions that have been taken in boardrooms,” said Dukwana.
Cipro acting chief customer officer Joey Mathekga suggested “an easy and shorter route” to resolving disputes arising from company hijackings would be for the aggrieved party “to come to an agreement”, where the invading party will “resign as a director and the rightful director assumes his position again”.
Mathekga said that would avoid the costly and long high court process.
Meanwhile, the South Gauteng High Court was expected to make a ruling on Thursday afternoon on whether to remove Sandi Majali and seven alleged hijackers as Kalahari Resources directors and re-instate Mashile-Nkosi and Brian Mashile as directors.
After laying charges of fraud with the Sandton police last week, Mashile-Nkosi approached the High Court for the removal of the “invaders”.
