PIETERMARITZBURG LIQUIDATOR Pierre Berrangé is on the carpet, again. This time he is accused of having bungled, by professional neglect or worse, the sale of a multi-million rand property development to a company in which the former CEO of BOE Bank, Bill McAdam, and cofounder of FirstRand Bank, GT Ferreira, were to be investors.
Following the intervention of the Chief Master of the High Court in Pretoria, Berrangé is now the subject of an inquiry in terms of Section 381 of the Companies Act with his accusers not only wanting him fired as liquidator of Halflyn (Pty) Ltd (in Liquidation), but also disbarred as a liquidator and lawyer, forever.
Section 381 reads: “The Master shall take cognisance of the conduct of liquidators and shall, if he has any reason to believe that a liquidator is not faithfully performing his duty… inquire into the matter and take such action as he may think expedient.”
The inquiry is chaired by Assistant Master Billy Nteta, who began conducting interviews in September. He has yet to report his findings.
This challenge comes hot on the heels of another inquiry that was launched by the Pretoria Master’s Office into Berrangé’s handling of a “strategic” pig farm liquidation that went pear-shaped thanks to a resilient divorcee. (See noses219;227&241)
The latest Berrangé controversy relates to a property development on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast initiated by businessman Tony Kay. In 2008 Kay “had a vision” to build some 360 houses on a 100ha plot with panoramic sea views along Shelly Beach’s R620 Marine Drive. Named Sunrise Bay, it was to be an eco-estate with wildlife such as duiker, suni, porcupine, dassie and the large African mongoose as well as fantastic birdlife all roaming and flying free amongst indigenous flora.
This story is from the January 2020 edition of Noseweek.
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This story is from the January 2020 edition of Noseweek.
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