By: Sello Theletsane
The Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday, 30 May 2023, dismissed with costs an application by controversial Advocate Nomazotsho Memani against City of Joburg Member of Mayoral Committee for Roads and Transport Councillor Kenny Kunene and Pio-Trans, the operating company of Rea Vaya Bus Company.
Kunene who was cited as a respondent among others along with Piotrans, the City of Joburg, and the new board of directors had been successfully represented by Aadil Mayet from Mayet Attorneys Incorporated.
Memani, who was ousted by shareholders in April 2023, as the chair of the board of Pio-Trans, an operating company of Rea Vaya Bus Company, took the matter to court, challenging her removal. In her court papers, Memani claimed that the independent new board of directors appointed by the shareholders and endorsed by Kunene, in his personal capacity, was illegitimate and had been appointed unprocedurerally.
A few days before shareholders took a decision to remove Adv Memani at a shareholders’ meeting in April, dramatic scenes unfolded at the headquarters of Rea Vaya’s bus operating company in Meadowlands, Soweto, when angry shareholders stormed the office and frog-marched Adv Memani, demanding her immediate dismissal.
The shareholders have accused Adv Memani of running the company down, failing to make it profitable, and for lacking commercial knowledge.
They laid the blame for the company’s ailing finances squarely on Adv Memani and her board whom they also accused of corruption. They yelled, kicked the boardroom doors, and demanded that Adv Memani, an influential ANC member, quit from the company and her board dissolved.
This prompted the shareholders to approach Kunene for intervention as a representative of the City of Joburg, to whom Pio-Trans renders services. Among other operational problems that triggered the rage of shareholders of Pio-Trans, which is owned by the Taxi Operation Investment Companies (TOIC) made up of nine taxi associations based in Soweto, is mechanical problems that have grounded dozens of buses and diesel shortages as a result of delayed or non-payment of diesel suppliers.
In his ruling, Judge AJ Malungana found that there was sufficient evidence that the shareholders who were entitled to vote, adopted a resolution to remove the board of directors of which Memani was a non-executive director.
“The removal was preceded by a notice in which the applicant was also copied. I hold that there is nothing untoward about the resolution adopted by the shareholders on 18th April 2023,” said Judge Malungana who also ruled that Memani’s application was not urgent. The Judge went on to dismiss Memani’s application with costs.
Kunene hailed the judgment, which he said allowed the new board “to concentrate on its huge task at hand, of not only saving Pio-Trans but making it a much more profitable entity”.
“The new board of directors must now hit the ground running and see to it that Pio-Trans meets its mandate of assisting the City of Joburg to build a leading, responsive, and activist transportation sector which works in partnership with stakeholders and residents.”
This judgment will go a long way in empowering the new board of directors to move expeditiously in ensuring that the injustice to shareholders which has been endured for twelve years by not receiving any dividends is reversed.”
Kunene added: “I implore the new board, to make sure that Pio-Trans, which has virtually been run to the ground by the previous board meets its objectives from which more than 300 families can finally and deservedly reap the rewards of their investment.“
