The Sunday News
Richard Muponde
VILLAGERS and the Zanu-PF leadership in Fort Rixon have vowed to disregard the court process and take over the running of Baragon Private Limited which owns gold claims in the area and chase away a South African company which allegedly fraudulently bought the company recently.
The gold claims are part of an over $2 million gold claims in dispute between Bulawayo businessman Mr Graeme Jansen van Vuuren who is a minority shareholder in Baragon Pvt Ltd and a South African company ZNK Investments CC Private Limited.
However, the villagers and Zanu-PF officials who met at Mapholisa Business Centre in Fort Rixon last week said they would not wait for the conclusion of the court case but would take over the gold claims from the South African company which they said should leave the area with immediate effect.
Villager after villager who spoke at the heated meeting which was punctuated with a lot of emotions, defended Baragon Pvt Ltd and Mr van Vuuren for creating employment in the district and initiating community development programmes for the benefit of villagers. Sunday News was shown a community hall which is at roof level which villagers said was being built by Baragon.
The company has reportedly also started the construction of a clinic, amid reports that it intends to construct a secondary school in the area. The villagers were also irked by the fact that since the taking over of the company by the South Africans, workers, mostly from the area, have gone for nine months without being paid their salaries.
Addressing the meeting, Zanu-PF Ward 14 councillor Cde Tennyson Ndlovu said they were going to chase the South African company from the area.
“We have no room to negotiate with them. We are taking over the company so that we develop our area. We are not going to be tolerant about that. We don’t want people who come here to take our gold and develop big tummies at the expense of locals,” said Cde Ndlovu.
He said Mr van Vuuren and Baragon Pvt Ltd had done a lot for the people of Fort Rixon and wants them to remain and finish the projects they have started.
“The South African company is claiming property which is not theirs. Right now they took over property belonging to a Mrs Jackson who had been tendered by Baragon to work for it. That’s not Baragon’s property. We are going to send our people to guard the property and remove that security company which was deployed there. What do they want to provoke? We fought the war and it is over, now we want to focus on development,” thundered Cde Ndlovu.
Zanu-PF district chairperson Cde Jeremiah Khanye also denounced the takeover by the South Africans, saying Baragon Pvt Ltd was working with the community well and should not be sold to anyone.
“We want to know who sold Baragon. That person should come and stand in front of us and tell us how he did it. We have nothing to do with the South African company. We don’t want it here,” he said.
Their sentiments were also echoed by the area’s headman, Mr Benzis Dlodlo, who said Baragon Company was good to them as it took local labour and paid them on time unlike ZNK CC .
The South African company reportedly bought the claims which are worth over $2 million for $650 000 from a director of a Mauritius-based company M and M Intertrade Private Limited which has major shareholding in Baragon Pvt Ltd where Van Vuuren is a minority shareholder. Michael Horwitz, a South African who is the director of the Mauritius based company, reportedly sold the gold claims and other company assets to ZNK Investments CC in which he is said to have interests albeit without the authority of his employers and shareholders.
After learning about the sale, Mr van Vuuren rushed to the High Court to stop the imminent transfer of the gold claims and assets to ZNK Investments CC. Two weeks ago, Bulawayo judge Justice Martin Makonese ruled in favour of Mr van Vuuren and granted an order interdicting the transfer of the gold claims and assets to the South African company and also barred it from conducting any mining activities. Baragon Pvt Ltd owns six mining claims under its six subsidiaries namely, Mahomack Trading Pvt Ltd, Sharity Investment Pvt Ltd, Sentinel Energies Zimbabwe Pvt Ltd, Ishpid Investments Pvt Ltd, Larrice Services Pvt Ltd and Dom Tom Investments Pvt Ltd. The matter is still pending before the courts where Mr van Vuuren is also seeking High Court permission to represent all the shareholders in terms of the law.
