Sekhametsi Owners In Nasty Fight

The battle, which has spilt into the High Court, has shattered the peace and harmony that has seen the consortium grow into a behemoth worth M1.3 billion from an initial investment of just under M5 million.

The 20 percent stake in Vodacom Lesotho has guaranteed consistent dividends to 500 shareholders while also investing in Sekhametsi Place (Agric Bank building) and Vodacom Park.

This has made Sekhametsi the largest locally owned investment consortium in Lesotho, and its stock, trading at around M12 000, is one of the most sought-after.

However, tensions have been simmering behind the scenes, with allegations of conflict of interest, mismanagement, malfeasance, and poor investment decisions flying back and forth.

Although these allegations have been raised among some disgruntled shareholders since 2019, tensions started boiling over around 2021 when questions were raised about Sekhametsi's M10 million investment in Afri-Expo Textiles, owned by Teboho Kobeli who is now chairman of the ruling Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party.

Around the same time, some shareholders also questioned the company's M15 million investment in Verve Dynamics Incorporated, a cannabis processing company in which Prime Minister Sam Matekane had interests.

Those investments were the main grievances that triggered the 2022 removal of the board which included Matjato Moteane, who later became the Minister of Public Works.

The new board was elected on promises to make wholesome changes and appoint forensic auditors to investigate the Verve and Afri–Expo transactions.

But three years later, the mood has soured against the board.

Shareholders accuse the Selikane Selikane-led board of usurping the management's role, paying itself huge sitting allowances, failing to draft critical policies, poor performance and ignoring the shareholders' instructions.

The board is also accused of trying to resist the shareholder's attempts to remove it.

Pressure on the board has however been mounting since December last year, with calls for its removal louder.

Still, the board rejected attempts to include its removal on the agenda of shareholders' meetings. Relations have become frosty and tempers have flared as strongly worded letters fly back and forth.

WhatsApp groups of shareholders have also become battlegrounds for bellicose exchanges.

Matters came to a head on June 1, when the Selikane-led board was abruptly removed and replaced by one led by Thuso Green. Selikane's board is now refusing to vacate office and is challenging its removal in the High Court.

In the application, Selikane's board wants the court to declare their removal and the election of the new board unlawful.

They want the court to interdict Green and other directors from holding themselves out as the board until the case is finalised.

The basis of their lawsuit is that the June 1 election was“unlawful”,“null and void” because the removal of their board and the election of a new one was not on the initial agenda.

They allege that the coup against them was masterminded by Dr Mphu Ramatlapeng, a shareholder who they claim instigated some shareholders to turn against the board and then manipulated the election to remove them.

They accuse Dr Ramatlapeng of making“frivolous and vexatious” allegations in several letters to influence some shareholders to vote them out and then illegally developing a Special Shareholders Proxy Form on Sekhametsi's letterhead.

Dr Ramatlapeng, they allege, filled proxy nomination forms before the registration of shareholders,“brought in ballot papers, put fake signatures of shareholders to simulate they voted for the removal of the board in ways that require her to account for possible criminal violations for fraud”.

They say because the election of the board was not on the agenda some shareholders who joined the meeting virtually could not access the ballot papers allegedly created by Dr Ramatlapeng's group.

Selikane's group tells the court that Boithatelo Khatleli, whose appointment as the head of the electoral committee they alleged was influenced by Dr Ramatlapeng, informed the shareholders to vote by sending WhatsApp messages to his phone but“did not provide for the mechanics of counting votes sent to his phone”.

“An insurmountable hurdle is that this meeting was not the special shareholders meeting called for the purpose of electing directors,” Selikane says in his affidavit.

“This group that they call the new board must be rejected”.

Selikane says Dr Ramatlapeng's group and the new board“meddled in the internal affairs of the company for self-serving ends” and“have no authority to bind Sekhametsi”.

He claims that Dr Ramatlapeng's group wanted to remove his board to frustrate the finalisation of the forensic audit into Sekhametsi's transactions with Verve and Afri-Expo.

He also alleges that Khatleli is involved in the plot to remove the board because his company, Khatleli Tomane Moteane Architects (KTM), has an interest in the outcome of the forensic audit.

This, he says, is because Forvis Mazars Forensic Auditors is also looking into how KTM was awarded the contracts for work on Sekhametsi Place and Vodacom Park.

Staff Reporter

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