CAPE TOWN - DELTA Property Fund's lead independent director, JJ Njeke, withdrew his resignation yesterday after the recent release of a forensic audit into the real estate investment trust that implicates as-yet-unnamed directors with irregular procurement and misappropriation of funds.
“The Delta Board is very pleased to advise that Mr JJ Njeke has reconsidered his decision to resign from the Delta board, and … will remain on the board as the lead independent director and also as the chairperson of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee,” the group, which leases much of its diversified portfolio to the public sector, said in a regulatory notice to the JSE.
The group had originally announced Njeke's intention to resign at the end of November. Last Friday, three other former Delta executives denied their involvement in any wrongdoing.
This after the company said a probe by Mazars had shown senior executives were responsible for about R46 million of irregularities.
The three executives, former chief executive Sandile Nomvete, former chief financial officer Shaneel Maharaj and former lead independent director Otis Tshabalala claimed they had always acted in the best interest of Delta, and that their resignations were meant to inject new leadership into the group.
Delta's board said in an earlier cautionary notice to shareholders that there had been a failure to recognise commission and property management expenses in the property valuations, and that a decrease in the valuation of investment property from R10.6 billion to about R8.7bn in the financial statements for the year ended February 2020 was likely. Delta's shares closed 10.34 percent higher at R0.32 on the JSE yesterday.
BUSINESS REPORT