US-based Pula Group has filed for leave to appeal a Johannesburg high court judgement that cleared Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC) of liability in a R3.4bn damages claim linked to a Tanzanian graphite venture, said Business Day on Friday.
Judge Leicester Adams ruled last month that no obligations under a confidentiality agreement extended to ARC, absolving Motsepe, ARC, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and Arch Sustainable Resources of the claim brought by Pula Group, which is led by Mary Stith, daughter of former US ambassador to Tanzania Charles Stith.
Pula had alleged that the defendants breached a confidential 2019 agreement after it shared proprietary information about Pula Graphite with ARM in pursuit of investment that never came. An ARC-linked entity, Arch Sustainable Resources Fund, subsequently invested in Australia’s Evolution Energy Minerals in 2021, which held the Chilalo graphite project in the same Tanzanian region.
Judge Adams found that any contractual remedies available to Pula should lie against ARM alone. The damages claim itself remains before the Tanzanian high court.
ARC’s legal representative, advocate Stuart Scott, filed papers on Thursday opposing the appeal, arguing there was no prospect of a higher court reaching a different conclusion, said Business Day.
Scott said that while Pula had accepted in the South African proceedings that the agreement afforded no basis for a claim against ARC, it was simultaneously pursuing ARC in Tanzania on the grounds of joint and several liability.
“It is indisputable that ARC is not a party to the agreement and is not bound,” Scott said.
