I secured that P500m tender – Masisi’s nephew
Mpho Mokwape | Monday May 29, 2023 06:00
Pilane, who has been openly butting heads with his aunt who happens to be Masisi’s sister, Boitumelo Phadi-Mmutle, also says that leaving the company G&M Building Services (cited in court documents as First Defendant) was never voluntary due to threats he received.
The first family dispute involves the Goodhope Sub-District water supply scheme 2.2 contract for P549.6 million, which was a joint venture between G&M Building Services (Proprietary) Limited and Tianyuan Construction (Tianyuan).
In his fresh papers filed in response to her aunt and her business associates pleadings, Pilane said he took the lead in preparation for the tender documents for bids by the company as a shareholder.
“I took lead in preparation of the tender documents then I was forced to resign after threats were made to me by Huashi Li and my aunt Mrs Phadi-Mmutle and that my actions were not voluntary,” he said.
Pre-Con Construction managing director Li, who has been cited as the fourth defendant in the suit, has been accused by Pilane of acting with his aunt to threaten him to the point that he was forced to resign.
Pilane explained that Li has been controlling the mind of the first defendant and that he has major involvement in the water projects of Goodhope 2.2 WUC 2020 and Phikwe contract 3c, which is executed by the G&M company. “I reiterate that Huashi Li was and is still controlling the mind of the first defendant and at trial will lead evidence to show his involvement in projects of Goodhope and Selebi-Phikwe contract executed by G&M Services,” he said.
He pointed out that his actions immediately after one meeting he had with Li and his aunt were influenced more by the threats that had been made by the two. On the shareholding of the company, Pilane explained that he was a shareholder and a managing director before he was pushed out, which of the shares he bought from Li. In his court papers, he states that he was sold the shares at the instance of Li on terms and conditions by them and that he duly discharged his obligations for which shares were issued to him.
Pilane explained that even the changes of the company’s shareholding Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) in addition to other documents will show that his shareholding in the company was done after May 29, 2020 and distributed between a Kelebogile Monnaatshipi (second defendant) and Tswela Khumo Ventures Limited (third defendant).
“It was on the basis of my engagement with the Huashi Li that I acquired shares in the company on terms and conditions that were produced. But I was pushed and my shares distributed between a second and third defendants. Such distribution was unlawful as I did not authorise it,” Pilane said. Pilane concluded that he is seeking special damages as he wants a claim of P17m from all the four defendants.
In all this, Pilane was responding to the President's sister and her business associates’ denial that they did not have any association with him and that he was just imagining things as he was never a shareholder of the company. Meanwhile, in their pleadings after Pilane decried how he was threatened and pushed, Phadi-Mmutle explained that there was never threats from her as alleged by her nephew and that his decision to resign was his own and not forced . “It is quite noteworthy that my nephew had previously filed a petition to liquidate the first defendant before the High Court where he tried to act as if he had never resigned as a director and a shareholder of the company. He withdrew the petition after evidence of his resignation was placed before the court,” she said.
She pointed out that it was startling that the plaintiff has moved from being untruthful under oath in his petition to now saying he was coerced into resigning, which demonstrated someone who was trying to build a case founded on smoke and mirrors.
On the shareholding, Phadi-Mmutle said Pilane did not show any evidence of being a shareholder, nor show who he took over shares from. “He does not state how much the alleged price of the shares was and how this was payable.
This demonstrates that he was never a shareholder of the G&M Building Services,” the aunt said. She further stated that the fact that Pilane's name may have appeared as a shareholder at the time of re-registration did not mean he acquired the shareholding in the first place.
The aunt noted that even his nephew sent a WhatsApp communication to her after his resignation around May 31, 2021 asking to be removed from the first defendant records as he did not want this to interfere with new arrangements. “To this extent he acquiesced to his resignation and alternately waived his rights to challenge any removal from the company by his conduct and cannot be crying foul at this point. In any event he was never really a shareholder of the company as has been stated before,” she said.