THE business rescue practitioners (BRPs) for the Optimum Coal Mine want to investigate how R3bn in profits earned by the Mpumalanga province operation were spent as there was no evidence the monies were ploughed back into the mine, said BusinessLive citing a report by the practitioners.
The report also contains details of how the BRPs intercepted “an illegal transfer” of an R80m value-added tax refund from the South African Revenue Service to a third party which, combined with R22m realised from the sale of stockpiles, gave them enough money to pay employees wages at Optimum.
Employees had previously gone on strike after they were not paid wages. The funds also allowed Optimum Coal Mine to secure a railway siding, spend R20m on refurbishing yellow machinery and pay for diesel and electricity, said BusinessLive.
One of the practitioners, Louis Klopper, said the mine had “collapsed” and was in a “disastrous state of affairs”. The R3bn profit made in 2017 was of interest, said BusinessLive. “Based on the current state of the assets it is the opinion of the [practitioners] … that the profits were not used to recapitalise the asset,” the rescue plan read. “Further investigation is required to determine how the profits were utilised.”
