malvernmugadzikwa
Sunday Mail Reporter
THE ongoing messy battle for Vubachikwe gold mine recently escalated after shareholders Forbes & Thompson reported lawyers representing Fawcett Security Operations — a creditor of the mine that is alleged to be trying to place the mine under corporate rescue, as part of a plot to engineer a hostile takeover by London Stock Exchange-listed Kavango Resources — to the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) for allegedly offering bribes to mine workers for them to support the application for corporate rescue.
However, the law firm, Masamvu Da-Silva Gustavo Law Chambers, denies the allegations and has threatened legal action.
Fawcett made an application on April 25 to put Vubachikwe under corporate rescue in terms of Section 124 (1) of the Insolvency Act, arguing that it was “heading towards insolvency” and “owes various creditors, including workers, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and ZESA Holdings, more than US$10 million”.
But the mine’s managing director, Mr Allan Dolan, who is also a majority shareholder in Forbes & Thompson through Duration Gold, claims Fawcett’s application was “mali fide” as it had refused payment of the US$181 067,50 it was owed, which betrays its complicity in the plot
The case took a nasty twist recently when Forbes & Thompson wrote a letter to LSZ on August 29 complaining about the lawyers’ alleged conduct.
Earlier, on July 17, the company had lodged a notice of complaint.
“We hereby write to you to file an official complaint against unethical conduct of the law firm, Messrs Masamvu Da-Silva Gustavo Law Chambers, Bulawayo . . .
“The law firm, whilst acting for Fawcett Security Operations (Private) Limited, in ongoing litigation in HCHC276/24, have behaved unethically and in a manner which in our view brings the practice of law into disrepute,” the company’s director, Mr David Easterbrook, wrote.
“Firstly, on June 28, 2024, legal practitioners from the said law firm attended at our mine (Vubachikwe Mine), the mine that is subject of the dispute currently pending in the above-mentioned litigation.
“Upon their attendance, they directly and indirectly, through members of a trade union and certain employees (both current and former), offered bribes and incentives in the form of mealie meal to our staff members, in exchange of our staff members supporting their client’s application for the corporate rescue of our business.
“We take the view that their conduct in offering mealie meal and other incentives to our staff members to attest to several affidavits, whose intention was to convince the court that their application was merited, in that the company is insolvent, amounts to unethical conduct.”
Forbes & Thompson also claims the law firm, in some instances, even threatened mine workers with various forms of unspecified action if they failed to support the application.
“The second basis of our complaint is that the law firm has been advertising its services to our staff members at the Vubachikwe Mine compound by widely distributing fliers, which refer to it as being the law firm that is acting for Fawcett and portraying itself as a ‘saviour’ of our staff members.
They have also been spreading this rhetoric to our staff members directly and through trade union representatives,” added the company in its letter of complaint.
Attached to the letter are affidavits from some of the mine workers who ostensibly claimed they we being coerced to sign forms in exchange for mealie meal and other incentives.
But, in response to the notice of complaint, the law firm denied the allegations.
“It is denied that any threats were made and that bribes were offered by our legal practitioners to your employees on June 28, 2024.
“From our understanding,the legal practitioners and staff were there to serve the notice in terms of the Insolvency Act,” wrote Masamvu Da-Silva Gustavo Law Chambers on August 7, 2024.
“It is also denied that we contacted labour and union representatives in order to threaten them to ‘associate with our client’s cause’ . . .
“We also advise that we shall not be shaken or threatened by your unfounded and baseless allegations bent on making us not represent our client to the fullest.
“If you feel you have a legitimate complaint, please feel free to approach whichever office you feel like and we will, in the event you fail in your pursuit of such, sue you personally as David Easterbrook and this letter shall be used to claim punitive costs against you.”
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