ESKOM WAS PREPARED TO SETTLE THE OUTSTANDINGS.

According to a occupant on the Schaapkraal Farm which adjoins Northam Platinum´s Booysendal farm, a meeting was held between the farm claimants and Eskom distribution services after their electrical  contractor, Roshcon was forced to leave in a huff citing allegations of threats and intimidation from the new occupants who had arrived to settle in on their farm.

The occupant was surprised by such  reaction from the contractor as the occupants had identified themselves and the nature of their complaint against Roshcon with their unexpected and unauthorised appearance to set up the power transmission over Schaapkraal to feed Northam Mine without the communities knowledge and consent .

Eskom sensing that its R65million contract might be jeopardised decided to approach the occupants. At a subsequent meeting Eskom apologised and proposed that it would pay all arrears and outstanding monies to the community which would be due to them in the normal course of such construction.

At the time Eskom did not insist that the property in question, that had been rented out to Roshcon, in fact belonged to Northam Platinum. Maybe Eskom were unaware of the details of the property ownership.

We have not been able to establish  whether  in fact public consultations had been conducted with any party or even if the State had been informed. All we know is that according to a community member they had been alerted by another community at the time that some other people had suddenly arrived and were putting up power lines over their property.

According to Northam´s court papers it admitted that it had approached the Land Claims Commissioner (LCC) via a Mr.Tony Jones. Mr Jones says he notified the commission that Northam needed to route transmission lines over a portion of Schaapkraal but the landowner was not prepared to enter into a servitude agreement thereby creating a potential time delay for Northam.

The private landowner appeared to have been offered a deal too good to be turned down as servitude's are small change and the owner remains stuck with an illiquid property which can only be repurchased by the State which did not seem to be in  a hurry.

The only problem here is that one mans windfall was another´s pitfall. We are told that at the very same time  Mathedimosa was being prepped for a quick deal with Northams property co., Mathedimosa was meeting with the community to finalise their claim.

One can only think that he did not consider this important enough to advise Mr Jones either in writing or verbally the consequences of his actions if he went ahead with the purchase.

Northam´s actions point to the fact that people on the ground are running around unchecked seemingly
scalping deals with little accountability from senior management in the quest to get pieces of paper to legitimise activities retroactively.

Thus when asked if they had authorisation´s  to construct power lines over third party land Northam and Eskom could duly produce the right papers.

Northam Platinum, before running to the high court had in fact approached the South African Police to ask them how they could get rid of the unlawful occupants interrupting now unlawfully gained power route. One would have assumed that Northam would have consulted with their lawyers for this kind of advice.