Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter—
Mwana Africa Plc, the parent company of Bindura Nickel Corporation and Freda Rebecca, has sacked non-executive board chairperson Mr Mark Wellesley-Wood amid suspicion he was an agent for a hostile takeover. The London Alternative Investment Market listed multi-commodity extractor confirmed Mr Wellesley-Wood’s abrupt departure, but did not state the reasons behind this.
However, The Herald Business has it on good authority that Mr Wellesley-Wood was sacked at a board meeting on Monday after it emerged that Centar Mining, a group linked to him, which has also partnered Meikles Limited, was angling to take control of the mining junior.
The rumour mill had been turning, since Mr Wellesley-Wood’s appointment, that Mwana Africa was not done with earlier attempts to fend off attempts for a hostile takeover. The latest attempts were linked to Mr Wellesley-Wood.
“With vast diamond and ore reserves, and upside development in nickel and gold, Mwana’s activities in Zimbabwe are yielding successful results. Exploration indicates an exciting and bullish future in the DRC, all of which make the junior miner a target for raiders,” said a well placed source who requested anonymity.
Mwana appointed Mr Wellesley-Wood to the position of chairperson in September last year after unsuccessful attempts by some investors to gain control of the firm and its vast resources earlier in the year.
Market sources alleged Mr Wellesley-Wood was linked to Centar, which had earlier attempted to snap away Mwana’s cash cow, Freda Rebecca.
“Non-executive chairman Mr Mark Wellesley-Wood did not take long to reveal his hand in manoeuvring to gain control of the company (hence his sacking),” the source said.
Attempts to get more details surrounding the unceremonious departure of Mr Wellesley-Wood were not successful by the time of going to press yesterday.
But chief executive Mr Kalaa Mpinga said in a statement on Mwana’s website; “On behalf of the board I would like to thank Mark for his contribution to the group and to wish him the very best for the future.”
Mr Stuart Morris, who is senior independent director and chairman of the audit committee, has been appointed interim chairman and will fulfil this role until a new non-executive chairman has been appointed.
It was feared the “corporate vultures” were counting on Mr Wellesley-Wood’s history of using his board positions to oust long-term directors and gain control of the companies’ resources compromising long-term viability.
Ironically, it is Mwana founder and CEO (Kalaa Mpinga) who endorsed Mr Wellesley-Wood as chairman in 2013 due to his background in mining and corporate finance.
His murky history last year prompted respected mining industry analyst John Meyer from SP Angel LLP to predict disaster for Mwana, immediately after Mr Wellesley-Wood was appointed as Mwana’s non-executive chairman.
“Why would (Mwana) take on a character who previously presided over a failing high-cost African gold miner, while enjoying the benefits of an excessive salary at the vast expense of shareholders and the company.
“Having cut directors’ salaries, bonuses and fees, why make a change that is likely to be unpopular with investors, unpopular with brokers and unpopular with staff?”
This was despite the fact that Mr Wellesley-Wood’s mentor was Mr Julian Barring, the older brother of Mwana Africa’s previous chairman, Mr Oliver Baring, who was allegedly instrumental in organizing the hostile take-over for Ian Hannam’s group Centar Mining.
Mr Wellesley-Wood is however not new to controversy. He once allegedly ousted ex-Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) Gold founder and chairman Mr Roger Kebble from the board of a company accusing him of fraud relating to DRD Gold’s business activities in the Australasia.
Mr Wellesley-Wood was also alleged to have caused delays in the listing of Rand Gold Resources where Mr Kebble was a director, by undertaking negative publicity he generated.
Mr Wellesley-Wood allegedly illegally retrieved bank and telephone statements through a firm of privately contracted investigators, “industrial and international espionage”, and organised a raid of the owner’s accounts by the South African Revenue Services, reports said.
Subsequently, he was refused re-entry into South Africa ahead of a litigation case against former business associates JCI Gold and Consolidated African Mines.
At that time, the director-general of Home Affairs, Billy Masetlha-previously head of the South African Secret Service-was widely quoted in national newspapers saying Mr Wellesley-Wood was not permitted to enter South Africa ever again after he showed disrespect “for the rules and procedures of immigration laws”.
After South Africa Home Affairs Minister, Mangosuthu Buthelezi permitted Mr Wellesley-Wood to appeal directly to the minister, the ban from re-entering South Africa was overruled in what many observers attributed to Mr Wellesley-Wood’s links with the UK Government.
Upon his return, he presided over six losses in seven years at South Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer and its dismantling.
Sources said Mr Wellesley-Wood’s calamitous management of an initial public offering attempt mooted in 2004, aborted in extremis, blocked Mzi Khumalo Metallon Zimbabwe’s access to financial markets for years to follow.
He left his position as CEO of the gold mining giant in 2008 saying the gold industry had no future under the present Government, but would return five years later to join another mining entity with its roots in Zimbabwe.