[miningmx.com] — “I KNEW we would win this one because the truth remains the truth. I have faith in the justice system of this country,’ said Kalahari Resources chairman Daphne Mashile-Nkosi after her company’s success against company hijackers at the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday afternoon.
Kalahari Resources had sought urgent relief from eight people who had removed Mashile-Nkosi and her fellow director as Kalahari Resources late August. Led by businessman Sandi Majali and Stephen Khoza, the hijackers installed themselves as directors in their place, without any Kalahari Resources shareholder knowledge or approval.
Although some of the hijackers were present in court, they could not put together a response on why they should not be removed as directors at Kalahari Resources.
“Their response was incoherent, irrelevant, and failed to address the issue of their shareholding and directorship of the company,’ said Deon Lambert of Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs, representing Kalahari Resources. “The court awarded us everything we wanted.’
Lambert said the court ordered South Africa’s Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) to immediately remove the eight as directors of Kalahari Resources on its records. The court also awarded legal costs against the hijackers.
Cipro is South Africa’s company registrations system which has online services that appear porous enough to allow interlopers to place themselves on the company directorate without need of shareholder approval. Cipro falls under the management of the country’s trade and industry department.
However, Mashile-Nkosi was not satisfied. She hinted at taking legal action against the custodians of South Africa’s corporate information, Cipro.
“But somebody must still pick up the tab for what we have lost in terms of reputation, time and in emotional stress we suffered as a result of this matter.
“Somebody has to pay for all of that,’ says Mashile-Nkosi. She will consult her legal team on Friday “to decide who that will be. I am in the middle of a large project and busy raising debt. But I had to loose a whole week to deal with this nonsense.’
The revelation that Mashile-Nkosi was “no longer director’ of the company necessitated her to go on a telephone “road show’ to assure financial institutions, Kalahari Resources’ shareholders as well as employees of the true state of affairs. “Somebody must pay for all that,’ said Mashile-Nkosi.
Earlier in the day, Cipro acting CEO, Lungile Dukwana, told the media that his organisation was not responsible for the breaches of information on its systems. “Cipro did not change any information. Why must we accept responsibility for it?’ asked Dukwana when asked if Cipro accepted responsibility for the fraud taking place on its systems.
