Deceased Bosasa boss Gavin Watson’s nephew, Jared, is in a bitter war with the master’s office in Johannesburg, over alleged “irregular” liquidation of his uncle’s multi-million assets.
Chief among the reasons behind their squabble is the sale of Bosasa’s R243 million Lindela repratriation centre in Joburg for R69-million.
Watson died in a car accident under a cloud in 2019 after the car he drove heading to the OR Tambo International Airport crashed into a pillar close to the airport.
Evidence at the Zondo commission implicated Bosasa in wrongdoing and allegations of corruption involving lucrative government tenders.
In a complaint written to the chief master of the high court in Pretoria, the young Watson accuses the master of the high court of deliberately wanting to sell entities under Bosasa, known as African Global Operation, for a song. He has vowed that this would not happen under his watch.
In the complaint, which we have seen, Watson said the assets are being sold off cheaply.
He also said the Bosasa Head Office, which is valued at over R154 million is being sold for R14-million.
In the ordinary course, the independent provisional liquidators are required to act collectively to prevent any hasty sale and act in the best interest of creditors and company owners, he wrote.
Watson wants the chief master to “exercise their discretion” to appoint additional independent liquidators. He is smelling a rat with the current liquidators, whom he believes are in cahoots with some officials in the master’s office.
According to him, discretion is, however, not unfettered, because it must be done in accordance with a minister’s policy.
He pointed an accusing finger at the Joburg High Court master Leonard Pule and his deputy, Reuben Maphaha as the alleged culprit behind the devaluation of the assets.
They allegedly refused to appoint additional independent liquidators, he said, after requesting them to do so.
Because of Pule and Maphaha’s micromanagement, the Pretoria complaint read, the resistance would cause financial harm to Bosasa’s creditors and interested parties like him.
Watson insists there was foul play involved in the assets’ valuation.
He wrote that any exercise of the master’s discretion to appoint further liquidators should comply with the law. It should be done in the best interests of creditors and the specialised knowledge or experience the proposed liquidator might have.
When challenged about this, Maphaha apparently informed Watson that he and Pule had made all discretionary appointments. But Watson found this puzzling, as Pule had informed him in writing that: “I am not involved in operational matters.”
Watson said: “It would therefore be of great concern if indeed Pule, who is not supposed to be involved in operational matters based on his own statements, might have taken it upon himself to become intricately operationally involved in the appointment of liquidators on African Global matters, where there are estates of such substantial value.” He also said Maphaha had, on June 8, approved the trading account for Bosasa’s provisional liquidators without first meeting the creditors.
In that instance, the provisional liquidators had earned more than R8-million in fees over and above the R36-million already spent on legal fees.“Once more, quite alarmingly, these accounts were not part of the master’s file for African Global and were held in the possession of Maphaha.
“They were only provided to me once I noticed the letter of authorisation, and then specifically requested the ‘trading account’ file,” said Watson.
According to Watson, the master’s office also made a mistake by failing to comply with the requirement to appoint three liquidators for cases whose estates are worth more than R100-million and two for those with less than that amount. In this regard, the details of six Bosasa entities, four of which are individually valued at more than R100-million and two below, were submitted to the master.
However, the master allegedly failed to appoint three discretionary liquidators but instead appointed one for the Global Technology Systems.
“The conduct of the master and deputy master regarding these estates in liquidation can only be described as highly irregular, and in complete deviation from the ordinary course,” wrote Watson, adding that “it is of great concern that Pule would not even entertain meeting with the creditors and members of such a large estate.
“We would therefore reiterate our request that a further independent and objective, appropriately skilled liquidator be appointed.”
Watson said this would prevent the unnecessary sale of these assets at an under-priced value or unproductive time.
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