Nkomati: BCL�s curate egg
Friday, March 24, 2017
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The sudden closure of BCL has been largely blamed on the botched P3 billion deal to buy half of Nkomati Mine from Russia’s Norilsk Nickel. A few days after the closure of the mine, former BCL chairperson Khaulani Fichani hinted to BusinessWeek that retaining control over the liquidation process was one of the factors that drove government to apply for voluntary provisional liquidation.
This came about a month after the South African minister of minerals gave consent to the transaction, an approval the Russians are now saying was the only outstanding condition for the deal to become binding. BCL, through the liquidator, on the other hand is also now arguing in South African courts that the minister should have never given that consent as BCL did not have the wherewithal to meet the requirements of being a shareholder in Nkomati.
The BDP as a party known to have ample resources has always held its primaries well in time, but this time around that was not the case. The first leg of the primaries was held last weekend, with the final leg being billed for the coming weekend. This time around, the BDP failed to shine in its primary elections. The elections were chaotic; most if not all polling stations didn't open at the specified time of 6am. Loyal BDP members braved the...