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NEW PLOT TO REMOVE STATUS CAPITAL BOARD, MANAGEMENT REVEALED

By Mbongeni Mbingo | 2024-04-19

Status Capital Building Society shareholders are once again being asked to take part in an audacious attempt to unceremoniously remove their Board of Directors as well as executive management.

This is according to communication seen by this newspaper, in which shareholders who are in a WhatsApp group are being lobbied to back a plan by one of the estranged shareholders to take part in another attempt to have the board removed.

As a result, the shareholders are being asked to take part in a virtual meeting, which is intended to be held this morning, where the plan is to take several resolutions – among which is the removal of the board.

The message was shared by one of the shareholders who is behind attempts to destabilise Status Capital, as part of a bigger move to assume control of the Status Capital.

The shareholder who shared the message is known to this newspaper but will not be named.

The WhatsApp group is known to be an active platform for a section of shareholders, although it is alleged this is a faction known to back Dave van Niekerk.

Status Capital could not be drawn to comment on the planned meeting, however in a statement issued last night, it cautioned shareholders about plotting against the society.

“Should that indeed be the case, members are cautioned to be wary of illegitimate gatherings that do not represent the society in any capacity,” reads the statement.

shareholders

The Society had been asked to comment on the reports that shareholders were being invited to a virtual meeting, and if it was aware of such a meeting.

According to the message shared in the WhatsApp platform, one of the members openly called for them to turn against not just the board but management, in order to install certain others ‘who would turn the Society around’.

The member urged the shareholders to rally behind the suspended Managing Director Michael Mbethe, remove the current management and then elect new board members so that they can reinstate Dave van Niekerk, who would in turn, turn the Building Society around.

Van Niekerk has not made secret of his interest to return to Status Capital and was accused of decampaining the current board, which eventually resulted in the chairman Wandile Mtshali resigning.

His relentless attempts to discredit the board and management led to Status Capital successfully obtaining a court order interdicting him from convening a special general meeting that he had scheduled for January 9, 2024.

Ironically, that meeting was to convene and take resolutions to remove the board and the management.

The court further interdicted van Niekerk from intimidation, duress or threats on employees or management of Status Capital in addition to the targeted media campaigns to tarnish the image of Status Capital.

The latest attempt to call a meeting, using the social media platform follows the failed attempt by van Niekerk to regain his position within Status Capital.

“The board and management team ran to court to get a court injunction preventing us from calling that meeting with our own members and with all of you as permanent shareholders. They’re obviously up to no good,” shared the member in the group chat, in reference to the January failed attempt.

“If I could ask everyone; Please can as permanent shareholders have a team’s meeting on Wednesday 17th April at 11am. Nobody can block us from having a team’s meeting,” added the member.

The modus operandi, it seems, would be to discuss options to deal with the issue of installing a new board.

“We could hop on teams where we can discuss our options on the way forward and we as the permanent shareholders can take a vote to remove the board members and then we go to court in a class action,” wrote the member, who continued; “we remove the board and send that court order to the FSRA informing them that we removed that board and that we have appointed an interim board and they as the FSRA get to approve the new board in the future but in the meantime that board is taking over and that board would primarily consist of Michael, Dave and one or two of yourself that are appointed with Almon Mbingo that will keep on so there is some continuity and then we will go on and fix the building society.”

The member then called for the shareholders to support his idea.

“I would like all your support please if we could have teams meeting possibly next week Wednesday 17 April 2024 and if everyone is content with that, we could then proceed to have a teams meeting where we could take the necessary decisions.”

“The first start is we dissolve the board, appoint an interim board and we remove the management team we suspend them while we investigate their actions and when we find their actions to be reckless and negligence which they are at the moment because they are trading with our money.”

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