Black liquidators oppose white choice

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Published Nov 3, 2013

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An association of black liquidators is demanding answers from the Reserve Bank after it filed a Pietermaritzburg High Court application to set aside the appointment of two black liquidators.

The Association for Black Business Rescue and Insolvency Practitioners of SA (Abripsa) says the decision of the Registrar of Banks, part of the Reserve Bank, to oppose the appointment of Amerasan Pillay and Lenka Chitja as co-liquidators of Shining Future Trading Projects CC negates transformative objectives.

The registrar said Shining Future Trading Projects ran an illegal scheme called Financial Intelligence, which was placed under liquidation in July last year.

The registrar would prefer a white liquidator, Theodor van den Heever, rather than Pillay and Chitja who were appointed by the Master of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg , where the case will be heard after Abripsa files its answering affidavit in two weeks’ time.

Abripsa general secretary Muhamed Patel said the Reserve Bank was opposed to black economic empowerment and the government should step in as the Reserve Bank was a state entity.

He told The Sunday Independent the masters’ offices across the country had agreed to appoint black lawyers as joint liquidators for the transfer of skills in a previously white-dominated industry.

In court papers, deputy registrar of banks Michael Blackbeard says he supports the laudable purposes of skills transfer and promises to appoint “persons from previously disadvantaged communities” when possible. He says it is unfortunate that Abripsa chose to intervene in the court case, initially between the registrar and the Master of the High Court.

In August, Abripsa and the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) joined the court case as intervening parties.

The Master failed to thwart Abripsa and BLA’s application to intervene.

Blackbeard says Abripsa should have engaged with the registrar, who had been prepared to consider candidates suggested by the BLA.

 

Blackbeard argues that Abripsa has failed to make any case establishing legal interest in the proceedings.

The registrar says investors in Shining Future Trading Projects’ are holding out for any possible dividend from a proper liquidation of the estate.

Blackbeard wants the registrar’s “knowledgeable and experienced nominee, Van den Heever, at the very least to be appointed provisional liquidator. - The Sunday Independent

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