The legal bid by the Industrial Development Corporation to place Northern Cape-based mining company Kalagadi Manganese under business rescue has sparked a war of words and allegations that the development finance institution is undermining black empowerment and female economic empowerment.
In papers filed on April 29 at the Johannesburg High Court, Khumalo told the court that the IDC sought an order to place Kalagadi under business rescue because the company was financially distressed and failed to pay the debt, and a business rescue process was a just and equitable intervention. She added that the IDC was willing to consider putting in post-commencement funding for the business rescue process so that Kalagadi could implement its turnaround plan.
Malumise said evidence of ulterior motives was contained in communication from the IDC, which the company had disclosed to court. Khumalo said in a replying affidavit that Kalagadi had “seemingly adopted a shotgun approach to the application. It provided as much information and personal attacks on the applicant and its officials as possible in the hope that something would hit the target.
Khumalo said the allegation that the IDC intended to orchestrate a management change with the current application was “similarly untrue and unfounded”, and it was “unclear how a business rescue process would achieve such a goal”. She said there were easier ways to achieve this, should it be what the applicant wanted.