Aurora liquidation case postponed

The liquidation case involving the politically-connected Aurora Empowerment Systems was postponed in the High Court in Pretoria to the end of the week, says an official.

"The matter is standing down until Friday... the judge decided to hear it on Friday," said one of the joint liquidators, Enver Motala.

Asked why the case was postponed, Motala said this sometimes happened when the court roll was too full.

The court was supposed to have received funding guarantees from a Chinese company on Monday to show that Aurora Empowerment Systems would be in a financial position to buy Pamodzi Gold's mines in Orkney and Springs.

Aurora, whose directors include Khulubuse Zuma, President Jacob Zuma's nephew and Zondwa Mandela, former president Nelson Mandela's grandson, made a bid to buy it in October 2009.

If no funding guarantees could be produced by the Chinese company --whose name has not been made public -- then the judge would have to decide if the mine should go into final liquidation or if it should be given more time to produce funding guarantees.

At the last court appearance in December, Motala said the judge was given a letter from the bankers of the Chinese company to say that funding had been issued.

Motala said he could not name the company yet due to "their own stock exchange regulations".

In December, he said the deal would be "finalised" at the next appearance, which would have been on Monday.

Since Aurora made the bid for Pamodzi in 2009, several possible deals have fallen through, mining had ground to a halt and many miners were still waiting for outstanding wages.

A payment of R800, 000 was made towards the salaries of some Grootvlei miners from Springs, the department of labour said in December.

Earlier this month, Solidarity trade union said more than R3 million was still owed in wages to 42 miners, and warned that it would apply to court to have Aurora liquidated if did not cough up the money.