TUESDAY, 11.00AM:
SOME R800-million of wine co-operative KWVs net asset value of R2-billion belongs to the state, a Cape court heard yesterday. The Minister of Land Affairs is opposing KWV’s attempts to convert from a co-operative to a public company, arguing that the co-operative based its business success on years of state assistance.
The court heard yesterday that R800-million of KWV’s assets were aquired due to the statutory powers it enjoyed as the state’s regulator of the wine industry over 75 years, and those assets should be paid to the state. The amount is based on investigations by the auditing firm Fisher Hoffman Sithole.
KWV has rejected the demand, saying it amounts to expropriation of assets without compensation. KWV argued that the co-operative was not a state owned institution and therefore its assets were not state owned. Furthermore, the calculation of the figure R800-million was flawed.
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