- Petitioner wanted P500K in director’s fees or the company liquidated
- Petitioner has con rmed withdrawal but declined to say why
President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s relative, Olebile Joseph Pilane, who had dragged the President’s sister Boitumelo Phadi Mmutle to court over a company that had been awarded a P550 million water supply tender, has mysteriously withdrawn the case from the Lobatse High Court where he had registered a petition for the company to be dissolved.
In the petition, Pilane who alleged being defrauded out of the company before it won the bid that he claims to have masterminded, had said that he was stripped of his shareholding in G & M Building Services through what he described as reconstituting the share- holding to remove him and replace him with Tswela Khumo Valves (Pty) Ltd, a company owned by Mmutle and Kagiso Lubama Hlauze.
No details
“Your petitioner (Pilane) is not aware of any resolution by the respondent company to remove your petitioner (Pilane) from his position as such,” Pilane submitted in court. In an interview with The Gazette, Pilane confirmed withdrawal of the matter but said he was “not in a position to go into further details or reasons.”
It is not known whether the parties have resolved their differences but sources say the case may be relaunched differently and not through the petition route.
Pilane’s lawyers had previously cautioned G & M Building Services to make a proposal regarding the dealing of their client’s shares in the company and unpaid director’s fees amounting to over P500 000.
Fallout
The lawyers said they had instructions to pursue liquidation of the company if the demands are not met. In his withdrawn petition to the court, Pilane had cited a broken relationship and a fallout with the company’s shareholders for his reasons for the company to be liquidated.
“The relationship between the shareholders and directors of the respondent company has broken down, there is no prospect of reconciling and your petitioner respectfully submits that it is just and equitable for this court to grant the order for the winding up of the respondent company,” the petition read.
Mmutle has declined telling The Botswana Gazette her side of the story.