The Watson family is gunning for the provisional liquidators who illegally sold their assets during an auction last year. This week, the family scored a major court victory when the Johannesburg High Court ruled that the liquidators appointed to run African Global Holdings, formerly known as Bosasa, had acted unlawfully.
In December, Park Village Auctions and Bidders Choice raised R100-million from the sale of assets of six African Global firms. The auction saw the company’s property, including head office in Krugersdorp and the Lindela Repatriation Centre, go under the hammer. But the court found that the sale of the assets of the company without the consent of the board and a meeting of creditors was unlawful.
Park Village Auctions on December 4 auctioned the assets despite a business rescue application launched by African Global a day earlier. The high court ruled that a business rescue application suspended the auction and added that the movable assets of the business that had been sold were unlikely to be recovered.
“The extremely disquieting aspect of this matter is that the provisional liquidators knew that they had not sought consent to the auction or the terms of the auction. They were challenged and pressed ahead as if they are a law unto themselves,” acting judge DP de Villiers said.
African Global Holdings CEO Jared Watson said that the master of the high court was expected to remove the provisional liquidators, who include Ralph Lutchman. “All those connected to the African Global group are pleased that justice has prevailed. The reality is, Ralph Lutchman and the provisional liquidators acted illegally and did so premeditated,” he said.
“The judgment was reported to the master, bringing specifically to their attention the ‘deliberate unlawful conduct by the provisional liquidators’ as well as the potential financial impact of this conduct, given that they may have created in excess of a billion rand worth of damages to the creditors and members of African Global.” Watson said they intended to take the liquidators to the South African Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners Association to request their removal as members.
This was to “prevent them creating this unlawful destruction of the value to any other companies in the future”, he said. Lutchman had not responded to a request for comment by the time of going to press. Meanwhile, Watson said that the family was still seeking answers around the mysterious death of his uncle, Gavin, who crashed into a concrete pillar while driving towards OR Tambo International Airport last year.
“A year later, we are no closer to answers than we were at the time of his death. The police have informed us that they cannot provide their investigation findings until they have received the toxicology results from the Department of Health. They have been waiting for a year now for those results,” he said.
