ANC veteran Matthews Phosa has vowed to pursue law firm ENSAfrica for legal costs he incurred in his battle for the ownership of a coal mine in KwaZulu-Natal.
This after the entity withdrew services in multiple litigations over ownership of a coal mine in KwaZulu-Natal named Umsobombvu.
Phosa and a Russian tycoon Luda Roytblat allegedly paid R14-million for the ownership of the lucrative mine to businessman, Lunga Kunene.
This after Kunene undertook to sell his mining rights for R450-million.
A dispute ensued among them and Kunene hired ENSAfrica to represent him.
This resulted in the delay of transfer ownership of the coal mine to Phosa and Roytblat.
The imbroglio also resulted in multiple criminal cases being opened, and civil cases lodged.
After the protracted dispute, ENSAfrica withdrew its services for Kunene but Phosa said they were not off the hook.
“ENSAfrica received R14-million of our money when we bought these mining assets from Kunene,” Phosa told Sunday World.
“Later, they turned around and weaponised Kunene to mount a pathetic corporate hijack of the mines we bought, fully knowing the facts,” he alleged.
He alleged the law firm suffered a lot of reputational damage during the process. “It is time they ran away. We will chase them for costs”.
He added that ENSAfrica still had a contempt of court order hanging over its head.
“ENSAfrica senior executives wake up every morning thinking the warrant of arrest might be executed against them,” said Phosa.
In May, Sunday World reported that Phosa and Royblat’s lawyer, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, ripped apart the request from ENS-Africa that Pretoria High Court deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba remove a contempt of court hearing against a client and one of their lawyers from the court roll on May 22.
Ngcukaitobi came close to accusing ENSAfrica of seeking special treatment, saying any litigant who wanted a matter postponed should plead their case before the sitting judge allocated for the case and not via the judge president’s office.
Days before the hearing, ENSAfrica abandoned its long-standing argument that the matter was improperly enrolled and instead opted to argue on its merits.
ENSAfrica lawyers Senzo Mbatha and Kunene were accused of causing the service of an impugned subpoena during an appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal over its validity. After hearing the arguments, Judge Gcina Malindi reserved judgment.
Sunday World has seen at least seven notices of withdrawal as attorneys of record that ENSAfrica filed in the Mbombela High Court, Pietermaritzburg High Court, Pretoria High Court, and Bloemfontein High Court.
The documents do not outline any reasons for the decision.
ENSAfrica spokesperson Ashleigh Faber dismissed allegations against a law firm as baseless and a smokescreen to distract from the conduct of entities linked to Phosa and Roytblat.
The law firm withheld reasons for withdrawing from certain aspects of the legal disputes due to confidentiality obligations.
However, Faber said Phosa’s conjectures were unsubstantiated.
She said that the January 2010 agreement for the sale of prospecting rights was canceled in 2017 due to Phosa’s team’s failure to obtain ministerial consent.
Faber alleged that the subsequent consent to transfer mining rights appeared to be based on a fraudulent power of attorney.
The client requested government documents related to the application to be issued under a subpoena that was currently part of a contempt of court case.
On another front, Phosa lodged a misconduct complaint against Mbatha with the Legal Practice Council (LPC).
The LPC’s investigating committee will hear the matter on October 30, when Phosa will testify.
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