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A ground-breaking judgment is expected on Monday when the Pretoria High Court rules on whether the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) can intervene on behalf of business owners who claim their companies have been hijacked.
At the heart of the case is billionaire Pastor Joe Singh, based in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. Last year, he told the media that he had donated R500 000 to the ANC Youth League in return for a “political solution” to his mining company Just Coal’s contractual problems with Eskom.
Singh approached the high court in 2016 to interdict the CIPC from questioning him about claims by Johannesburg-based businessman Ralston Smith, that he stole his companies Finishing Touch Trading 204 and Lahleni Lakes.
Both entities own property along the N12 in Witbank, Mpumalanga.
The fraudulent change of company directors listed in the CIPC database came under the spotlight in 2010, when a suspected syndicate hit 17 companies including two involved in the multimillion-rand Gautrain construction project, allegedly to steal tax refunds from the SA Revenue Service.
Late controversial businessman Sandile Majali, together with Stephan Khoza, Haralambos Sferopoulos and Elvis Bongani Ndala were among those who faced fraud charges for allegedly changing the directorship of mining company Kalahari Resources.
According to court documents in City Press’s possession, business consultant and state witness Jan van Dyk wrote in an affidavit that in January 2012 he “had a copy of the signature of Mr Smith that I got somewhere, and made a copy of it”.
He “cut it out, gummed it in place on a mandate for resignation which (is) an attachment on the CoR 39 form”. The CoR 39 is a standard CIPC notification form used for the notice of change of directors.
Van Dyk said he made a copy of the altered form and emailed it to the CIPC to resign Mr Smith as a director in Finishing Touch Trading 204.
He “followed the same modus operandi to have him removed again as director in Lahleni Lakes. Singh remained the sole director in both companies.
In 2016, the CIPC summoned Singh and two others, including Van Dyk, to provide information.
In response, Singh applied to court to review and set aside the CIPC’s decisions. He obtained an interdict against the summons, pending the court ruling on Monday.
Smith said on Friday that he would wait for the court process to unfold before commenting.
Singh was in Zambia, according to his representative Peet Erasmus.
Van Dyk could not be reached on the cellphone number contained in his affidavit.
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