The investor in financially distressed Ecsponent, who unsuccessfully attempted to provisionally liquidate the previously JSE-listed company, has not thrown in the towel yet, reports Moneyweb.

Her fight to find out what happened to the R2.3bn invested in preference shares in the company continues. 

Jienie-Michelle Dreyer has now sent a letter of dispute on a petition to appeal to the Chief Justice of the SCA to give notice that she intends to apply to the court to review the case on the grounds of ‘grave failures of justice’ and against the whole judgment and orders of Judge G Ally.

This after Ally on 20 February 2024 dismissed her application to provisionally liquidate Afristrat and on 26 May dismissed her application for leave to appeal his judgment, and the SCA ruling on 11 November 2024 not to entertain her petition for leave to appeal the judgment.

Dreyer said on Tuesday that she has not yet received a response to her letter, adding that she is in dire financial straits and is unable to obtain a legal team.

Ecsponent, which was renamed Afristrat Investment Holdings, had its listing on the main board of the JSE removed on 1 July 2024 following the suspension of trading in the company’s shares in August 2022 because of its failure to publish its audited financial statements.

Despite opposing Dreyer’s application, Afristrat’s board decided in March 2024 to voluntarily liquidate the company because it is commercially insolvent.

Afristrat was unable to proceed with its liquidation application because Dreyer’s application to provisionally liquidate the company took precedence.

Dreyer claims in the letter to the Chief Justice that an injustice has been committed and stresses that her application was for the ‘urgent liquidation’ of Afristrat and not how the investments were lost, according to Moneyweb.

She claimed Ally erred in finding that the test in her application for leave to appeal has changed in every instance to one where she is required to convince the court that another court ‘would’ come to another conclusion as well as omitting the possibility altogether that there exists some other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard.

Dreyer believes the whole matter should have been reconsidered by a fresh pair of eyes and criticises the fact that reasons were not provided for dismissing her attempts to appeal the judgment.

Dreyer’s various court applications follow her acquisition of R6.5m preference shares in Afristrat through an independent financial broker/advisor in September 2015 and June 2016.

Afristrat CEO George Manyere previously told Moneyweb that almost 90% of Ecsponent or Afristrat’s investment funds were invested in MyBucks, either as equity or as loans, and all that money was lost when MyBucks collapsed.

The MyBucks Group has been liquidated and is being wound up.

Full Moneyweb report