adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
BULAWAYO businesswoman Henrietta Gugulethu Dube has filed an urgent chamber application at the Bulawayo High Court seeking to liquidate Goodenough Gold Mine arguing that it has been impossible to run it since the death of one of the shareholders, Alexander Wood, who was also her lover.
The businesswoman is also seeking an interdict barring Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners law firm from attaching and selling her 30 percent shares in the mine located in Matobo. The law firm is seeking to recover its money for legal fees rendered to the company.
Dube, a director in Goodenough which trades as Chakata Resources Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, said the company should be placed under liquidation, arguing that it had become impossible to run it in a manner that is transparent, efficient and profitable.
She said a dispute arose among shareholders after Wood’s death, who represented foreign investors’ in the company. Wood, a former British Special Services Soldier, was found hanging two years ago at a house in Bulawayo’s Four Winds suburb he shared with Dube, who was his mistress and a coroner concluded that he committed suicide. In the court application seeking to liquidate the mining firm, Dube said there was litigation over the control of the company.
“Foreign investor’s agent Alecs Mawere took over the mine, sought to take away my shares, recall the loan, threaten me and barred me from any activities on the mine,” Dube said.
She said it was better for the company to be placed under liquidation rather than have it controlled by foreigners, a move she said was in breach of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) and the Zimbabwe Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (ZIEE) Acts.
The mine was placed under provisional judicial management last year after a row erupted over management of the mine with some of its directors alleging gross abuse of funds. Dube said judiciary management has failed and she is now seeking an order for liquidation. The mine owes the Mining Industry Pension Fund $42,600, Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners $200,000 in legal fees and Cheda and Partners $25,000. The company, which was purchased using a $2,1 million loan, has also been defaulting on monthly payments to service the loan, which poses the danger of creditors recalling it. Dube said if the mine is sold it would fetch $1,5 million and everyone would benefit.
Dube, who is being represented by Sindiso Mazibisa of Cheda and Partners, is seeking an order that Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners be interdicted from selling the entire shareholding of Chakata Resources Zimbabwe (Pvt). She argued that the legal fees arose out of instructions from a foreign investor (Chakata Resources Mauritius) and a legal battle with plaintiff, and not at the instance of the plaintiff. Some of the company’s property which includes a truck, tractor, two compressors, three head gears, three hoisting machines, two lathe machines, a drilling milling machine, pressing machine, three crushers, six concentrators and a boiler, among other equipment has already been attached. Dube also stated in her founding affidavit that she wrote a letter to Chakata Resources Zimbabwe demanding that Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners stop attaching and selling her shares. “The second defendant (Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners) has no lawful right to attach and sell the 30 percent owned by plaintiff arising out of a debt owed by the 70 percent shares. First and second defendants agreed that the second defendant would be paid as a creditor its fees by Chakata Resources Mauritius and not plaintiff and first defendant,” said Dube.
The defendants have up to November 25 to enter an appearance to defend at the office of registrar of the Bulawayo High Court. The company has for a long time been caught up in a legal wrangle after Dube took her co-directors to court over allegations of inviting foreign investors to take over the poorly-performing mine and kicking her out.
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