The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ruled in favour of corruption-accused company Bosasa, now known as African Global Operations (AGO), ordering provisional liquidators to return control of the company to its directors within 12 hours, says a News24 report.

Acting Judge Goolam Ameer handed down a 24-page judgment yesterday, dismissing arguments by lawyers for liquidator Cloete Murray. AGO chairperson Joe Gumede filed the urgent application on 4 March. In his judgment, Ameer agreed with AGO, represented by Advocate Mike Hellens SC, and declared that special resolutions taken by the board of directors on 12 February to place the companies under voluntary liquidation, were null and void, because the resolutions and the meeting at which they were signed did not conform to regulations as set out in the Companies Act.

AGO and 10 of its subsidiary companies were placed under voluntary liquidation as a result, the company said at the time, of a decision taken by its bank to shut down its accounts. Ameer found that Murray, represented by Advocate Werner Luderitz, SC, failed to deal with this ‘core factual issue’ in their papers and during argument.

He found the liquidators, who argued that they did not have sufficient time to file appropriate responding papers, did in fact file comprehensive papers, but failed to tackle the main point raised by Gumede. Ameer awarded costs to AGO, and ordered Murray and two of his co-liquidators, Tania Oosthuizen and Ralph Lutchman, to pay costs in their personal capacities.

In addition to declaring the resolutions null and void, Ameer, who accepted the company was indeed solvent, also ordered the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission to change the status of AGO on company records within two hours of receiving the court order, to prevent a ‘vacuum’.

Full News24 report

Murray, one of the liquidators, told eNCA his legal team had yet to read the judgment. He said he still did not understand why African Global Operations sought the court order, notes a Business Day report.

‘That is strange. They resolved to take the companies into liquidation. They then applied, on an urgent basis, to have the very same resolutions set aside. I have no idea why,’ Murray said.

He said the court order meant that the companies are placed in the same position they were in February when the resolution to place the group under liquidation was taken. However, he said, the bank accounts of the companies remained closed.

’I am not aware of new bankers being on board,’ he is quoted as saying.

Full Business Day report