SAWIMIH clarifies the Exxaro BEE battle

The South African Women in Mining Investment Holdings (SAWIMIH) is calling for over 170 shareholders who owned shares and had not claimed their dividends to date. Through this call to action, SAWIMIH is thus dismissing any allegations over unpaid dividends by members of South African Women in Mining Association (SAWIMA).

Since its inception, shareholders, have received their dividends, and some got up to a million at one time. However, some shareholders have not claimed their dividends, because they made deposits without their names as references and could not be traced or contacted.

“We are therefore calling for “lost” shareholders to come forth to claim their dividends. This money belongs to our shareholders. We’re calling on them to contact us to get their money. In these tough economic times we want to do everything in our power to give them what is rightfully theirs”, says Mantombi Mapanzela, Chairperson of SAWIMIH. SAWIMIH will hold its Annual General Meeting in December and this will also be an opportune time for the “lost” shareholder to come forth and claim what belongs to them.

SAWIMIH

The South African Women in Mining Investment Holdings (SAWIMIH) is an investment company/wing founded in 2003, its shareholders comprised mainly of members from South African Women in Mining Association (SAWIMA). SAWIMA is section 21 company (not for profit) incorporated in 1999 to empower women by sharing information, fostering economic empowerment and providing funding for women in business through its revolving fund.

However, membership to the SAWIMA organisation did not automatically grant shareholding in SAWIMIH. In order to become a SAWIMIH shareholder, women in their individual or company capacity had to subscribe for shares from as little as R500 to R50000. Unfortunately, many members of SAWIMA thought they could be automatic shareholders hence a dispute arose, as members failed to differentiate between the two entities i.e SAWIMA and SAWIMIH.

198 women subscribed for shares in SAWIMIH thus became the legitimate shareholders. Unfortunately this number of shareholders exceeded the threshold from the Companies Act which allowed that a private company could only have 50 shareholders. This led to the formation of a trust in which all 198 women would be beneficiaries and this was done so that the organisation could participate in the Exxaro BEE opportunity at the time. This restriction was withdrawn in the Companies Act of 2008, thus allowing more women to be shareholders, the trust was unbundled and shares were allocated to women in their direct names.

Mapanzela, says they are working hard to convince SAWIMA interim leadership to bring back women who were left out, and Social Development department is also involved to try and assist in resolving this issue. Most SAWIMA leaders are new hence they deliberately closed out women from what legitimately is supposed to be their home, says Mapanzela.

In 2008 Sasol sold shares to previously disadvantaged individuals, and the then SAWIMA leadership encouraged women to buy into that opportunity through SAWIMIH, and more than 500 women bought in, and created another class of shareholders. SAWIMIH’s vision is to be “a flagship for empowerment”. It further seeks to empower black women in the mining sector by participating and investing in opportunities to create financial growth.