Pius Molefe likes to frown. He frowns often. The only time he is not frowning is when he is smiling. Molefe seldom smiles and so Molefe is always frowning. At the last court session at the High Court he was frowning more than perennial frowner High Court judge Lot Moroka. However, when he came out of court later that morning, he was smiling widely. The Botswana Building Society chief executive officer (CEO) gave his legal team firm handshakes and made for the door. The smile was as brief as the handshake.
When he walked out of the dim halls of the courtroom he squinted his eyes from the scorching sun and put on his dark shades. Moroka had found that Bifm Capital Investment Fund One had failed to convince the court that theirs was the bank to redeem the investor's shares, as the bank had warned, the latter would suffer irreparable damages. "To succeed in obtaining an interdict, (Bifm Capital Investment Fund One) must prove that irreparable harm and the absence of no other satisfactory remedy, should the interdict not be granted. (Bifm Capital Investment Fund One) has not proven (the) absence of other satisfactory remedies," concluded Moroka in his verdict. In the lead-up to the case late last year, the bank notified Bifm Capital Investment Fund One that it would proceed with buying the shares, giving it the mandatory six-months' prior to the March 31, 2012 deadline for the sale. However, to prevent the sale going ahead before the main case determines the legality or otherwise of the shareholding agreement between the two, Bifm Capital Investment Fund One instituted the urgent application.
