The Bengwenyama community misled South Africa’s Constitutional Court (Concourt) in the case in which Genorah Resources lost its prospecting rights, the Australian Stock Exchange-listed platinum junior Nkwe says in a hard-hitting media release.

Nkwe, headed in South Africa by MD Maredi Mphahlele, adds that, as a result, the Roka-Phasha community now intends to pursue legal action against the Bengwenyama.

The Roka-Phasha community alleges that the Bengwenyama misrepresented their community status and their status in terms of Section 104 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, which affords a preferential prospecting right to communities that live on the land earmarked for prospecting.

The Roka-Phasha, Nkwe adds, is also challenging a claim that the Concourt-favoured Bengwenyame had previously won a landmark community land claim in the High Court.

The Concourt, which ruled that the Nkwe-linked Genorah had failed to communicate properly with the Bengwenyama community, consequently set aside the prospecting rights that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) had awarded to Genorah, which is Nkwe’s black economic-empowerment partner.

The Concourt also overruled the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA), which demands that the aggrieved party brings its review application to court within 180 days.

Although the Bengwenyama community failed to meet PAJA’s 180-day deadline, the Concourt still found in its favour, on the grounds that the DMR had failed to deal with its timeous appeal.

Nkwe, Genorah and local communities from the Concourt judgement’s Eerstegeluk and Nooitwerwacht farms have resolved to proceed with a new rights application, which may clash with a separate application that the Bengwenyama is reportedly planning to submit.

The 250-million shares that Nkwe paid to Genorah for Nkwe’s interest in the southern three farms have been placed in voluntary escrow pending resolution of the DMR process.

Nkwe says that, together with Genorah, it initiated employment, road building, water provision and sport and recreational activities for the communities of the area, including the Bengwenyama community.

It identifies the most important Eerstegeluk landowners as the 2 174 ha Roka-Phasha and the 109 ha Greater Tubatse municipality.

“Nkwe has been advised by its major shareholder Genorah that Roka-Phasha tribal authority intends to pursue legal action against the applicants for misrepresentation made to the Constitutional Court as to their status within the community, the section 104 claim made by them and statements to the Constitutional Court, one of which suggests that they had previously won a landmark community land claim in the High Court,” the Australia-based company states.

The Concourt ordered the DMR and Genorah to pay the Bengwenyama community’s High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and the ConCourt legal costs.