Ulsan Botswana moves to stop Mupane appeal
Mpho Mokwape | Wednesday December 3, 2025 06:00
The company argued that whilst the liquidator, Kopanang Thekiso, received leave to appeal from the High Court, he failed to meet the filing requirements at the CoA.
The liquidator’s leave to appeal is in relation to a recently granted interdict against the sale of the gold mine by Lobatse High Court judge, Reuben Lekorwe. He had sided with the 'aggrieved' bidder Ulsan Botswana, which claimed irregularities in the process used to award Nova Africa the rights to purchase.
Now, Ulsan Botswana, through its lawyer Odirile Itumeleng, wants to stop the appeal, stating to the CoA bench that there was nothing supporting the application before court. Appearing for Ulsan on Monday, Itumeleng said the liquidator did not file a notice of motion and grounds of appeal with the CoA.
'The application has no supporting documents and even those filed were not signed as required under the rules of court. The application should be struck off,' he argued.
He explained that under the rules of court, a notice of motion and grounds of appeal should have been filed for the benefit of the court, and that those documents ought to have been signed.
Itumeleng said that in the event that there was no such undertaking from the other party, then the application should not be allowed to stand.
The liquidator’s attorney, Sipho Ziga, rejected Ulsan’s position, stating that the filing requirements had already been dealt with when the liquidator sought leave to appeal at the High Court.
'The matter was already handled there; there was no need to file grounds of appeal again because they had already been filed when we sought leave,' he said.
Ziga explained that the application for an expedited appeal was based on the fact that the High Court gave them the right to appeal.
In conclusion, he urged the CoA to proceed with the appeal, stating that the ongoing uncertainty could harm the mine and stakeholders.
“This appeal must move forward. We already have leave, and there is no basis for delaying the matter further,' he said.
The dispute before the CoA flows from Lekorwe’s decision at the High Court to halt the sale of Mupane Gold Mine.
Ulsan had argued that the liquidator’s process for choosing the winning bidder was irregular and unfairly favoured Nova Africa.
Nova Africa, a new company, had offered US$21 million as a one-off payment and has 49% citizen ownership by individuals with mining and technical backgrounds, with the remainder held by a Turkish firm. Ulsan, which is also linked to Turkish investors, initially offered $500,000 but said it could raise its final offer to $15 million after its due diligence.
Lekorwe granted an interim interdict blocking the sale and later granted Thekiso leave to appeal.
In his ruling, he found that there were reasonable prospects of success at the higher court.
He wrote that, “Whilst I am of the view that the issue of locus standi is not cut and dried as the applicants suggest, I tend to agree with them that perhaps my determination that leave was not required for an interim interdict and that non-joinder was not fatal, are final and definitive of the rights of parties.”
He added that these were findings he could not revisit, stating that he could not revisit and possibly alter the findings, and neither could any subsequent judge of the same jurisdiction who was going to deal with the review proceedings in due course.
The CoA reserved its decision for next week, December 9.