A mining rights dispute has taken a new twist, with allegations that a police raid last week in which mining equipment was seized happened three days before a warrant for it was issued.
In a court application to have the operation declared unlawful and the seized equipment returned, Green Lands Investments sole director Antonio Pereira alleges that the warrant was obtained on the basis of “false, misleading and incomplete information”, leading to a grave miscarriage of justice.
At the heart of the dispute is Stanley Mphahlele, of Mamokebe Colliery, who alleges that his mining rights were hijacked by Mamokebe Investments, the company under which Green Lands Investments is operating the coal mine in Dirkiesdorp, Mpumalanga.
Pereira alleges that Mphahlele misrepresented himself as having authority to act on behalf of Mamokebe Investments, the mining right holder. Pereira said court orders from both the Mpumalanga and Gauteng high courts confirm Mphahlele had no such authority before February 12 2025, and even after his reinstatement acted without board approval.
“The warrant application relied heavily on an affidavit by Mphahlele, who falsely claimed authority to act on behalf of Mamokebe Investments. The omission of these material facts constituted a serious nondisclosure which misled the magistrate into authorising the warrant on false pretences, thereby rendering the warrant invalid ab initio (from the beginning).”
But Mphahlele is adamant that Mamokebe Investments was hijacked from him and his fellow directors. The dispute has resulted in an ongoing civil suit.
“A guy called Mohamed has hijacked our company by simply forging our signatures at the CIPC [Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission]. The justice system is also failing us. The CIPC alleged that they have no records of forged documents. We definitely submitted the records, as you can see under other e-mails,“ Mphahlele told the Sunday Times.
In the past two weeks, police have become embroiled in the stand-off. Last week the Sunday Times reported how one of the allegedly illegal police raids on the mine resulted in two deaths after a vehicle drove into mining equipment that had been left on the road by police.
Mpumalanga police last week said they were investigating the raid, but this week police seized more mining equipment based on claims of illegal mining by Mphahlele and the department of minerals resources & energy’s (DMRE’s) Mpumalanga acting regional manager Ntshele Phasha.
This is despite DMRE’s national office saying the department had not issued any instruction to the police to raid or take any equipment, as this was a civil dispute between two private parties.
This week the department said the company had failed to comply with a court order on mining activities that had an environmental impact.
Their observations and reports may be contained in statements that form part of SAPS investigations, but this does not constitute departmental instructions for enforcement actions.
“Their observations and reports may be contained in statements that form part of SAPS investigations, but this does not constitute departmental instructions for enforcement actions,” said the DMRE.
“The department maintains that its role is regulatory and administrative, and it does not interfere with policing matters. In his judgment dated August 4, in the Mpumalanga division of the high court, acting judge Bam emphasised the importance of the section 31L compliance notice issued by the department and stated that the applicants had wilfully ignored the department’s compliance notice and continued mining activities, which constituted a clear contravention of a lawful prohibition.”
The department confirmed it had put a halt on the transfer of the mining rights.
Despite formal notice by Green Lands Investments sent to Mphahlele and Capt Itumeleng Phakedi from Gauteng, who led the raids on October 23 and 24, detailing Mphahlele’s lack of authority, he proceeded with the seizure on October 24. This was three days before the warrant was issued on October 27.
“Despite this knowledge, Phasha’s affidavit used by SAPS to obtain the warrant omitted critical facts and contradicted binding high court orders, thereby misleading the magistrate and causing a grave miscarriage of justice in the issuance of the warrant,” Pereira’s affidavit says.
“Each of these relied-upon documents was false, misleading or incomplete. This reliance amounted to misrepresentation, procedural unfairness and ultra vires conduct, as the notice did not apply to the applicant and should never have been used to justify the seizure.”
The affidavit further claims that Phakedi, in obtaining the warrant, deliberately failed to disclose crucial facts to the Piet Retief magistrate’s court. According to Pereira, these omissions included a written response from Green Lands Investments proving Mphahlele’s claims were false, agreements demonstrating Green Lands Investments’ lawful authority to operate, and the unverified nature of an affidavit from Phasha.
“In light of the above, it is evident that the respondents acted on false, incomplete and misleading information; failed to observe procedural fairness; and exceeded their statutory powers under both PAJA [Promotion of Administrative Justice Act] and the Criminal Procedure Act,” says Pereira.
Green Lands Investments asserts it has a lawful mining contractor agreement with Mamokebe Investments dating back to February 1. Furthermore, a section 31L compliance notice, used as justification for the warrant, was issued for a different entity, Green Lands Mining. Correspondence with the DMRE explicitly clarified this distinction, yet it was allegedly disregarded.
Pereira is seeking an urgent court order to set aside the warrant and declare the search and seizure operation unlawful. He wants the immediate return of all seized equipment and also seeks to interdict the police from further harassment or interference with mining operations.
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