Johannesburg - THE business rescue practitioner of Gupta-owned Shiva Uranium has lost his bid to overturn the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling declaring his appointment invalid.
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday refused to overturn the SCA judgment delivered in December last year that declared Mahomed Tayob and Eugene Januarie as Shiva Uranium’s validly appointed as business rescue practitioners.
In a unanimous judgment written by Acting Judge Owen Rogers, the apex court rejected Christopher Monyela’s bid to appeal the SCA ruling confirming Tayob and Januarie as the fugitive controversial family’s company’s business rescue practitioners.
The Constitutional Court found that the SCA rightly held that upon the resignation of another business rescue practitioner of Shiva Uranium, Cloete Murray, the right to appoint his replacement vested in Shiva Uranium’s board of directors and that Tayob and Januarie were validly appointed.
”It is thus not in the interests of justice to hear the appeal, and it follows that Monyela’s application for leave to appeal must be dismissed,” reads the judgment.
Shiva Uranium’s board initially appointed Kurt Knoop and Louis Klopper as its business rescue practitioners in February.
However, the following month, Shiva Uranium’s Shiva’s largest independent creditor, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), launched an application to have Knoop and Klopper removed.
Shortly before the matter was heard, Knoop and Klopper resigned as Shiva Uranium’s business rescue practitioners in May 2018.
Murray was then appointed to replace them and Monyela was appointed as a junior business rescue practitioner to assist him.
Murray also resigned later that year and this meant that a senior business rescue practitioner had to be appointed in his place as Monyela, as a junior business rescue practitioner, could not complete the business rescue proceedings.
In September 2018, Murray and Monyela passed a resolution purporting to appoint Juanito Damons.
Later that month, Shiva Uranium’s board passed a resolution resolving to appoint Tayob and Januarie as the company’s business rescue practitioners and Monyela would remain as a business rescue practitioner assisting the two new senior business rescue practitioners.
Monyela opposed Tayob and Januarie’s appointment and succeeded in the Companies Tribunal.
Tayob and Januarie approached the North Gauteng High Court but were unsuccessful.
They later appealed the ruling at the SCA, which was found in their favour.
Political Bureau