Conclusion
Conclusion
The countries in Africa are heavily in debt. One only has to look at who owns that debt to know who pulls the strings in those countries, and therefore who is influencing the political landscape. An inspection of those banking groups’ other interests may reveal something of the bigger picture.
In 2003 Zambia caved in to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to sell 49% of the state-owned Zambian National Commercial Bank (Zanaco). Absa was a preferred bidder and is presently one of only two horses still in the race along with a crowd called African International Financial Holdings Ltd (www.AfricaOnline.com , 21 January 2004). According to a report in Business Report on 1 April 2003, the country had ‘sold more than 250 state-owned firms, including copper mines, since 1992, under pressure from the IMF and other lenders’. A report on the website www.union-network.org dated 29 January 2003 stated that Absa had foreign debt of more than $6,3 billion and was ‘asking for debt relief to help cut poverty in a country where three out of four people live on less than $1 a day’. According to the same report, its decision to stop the privatisation program had threatened more than $1 billion of debt relief from the IMF. The 2004 report by AfricaOnline.com stated that, ‘The successful privatisation of Zanaco is one of the conditions for Zambia’s attainment of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries completion point, expected by the middle of this year.’ Another debt-for-equity trade-off and Absa is in the front of the queue. What will they extract as a means of securing payment of the country’s debts? Absa was formed in 1992 from the amalgamation of a number of South African banks, including Volkskas, which was Glazer’s partner in a number of ventures. Under the directorship of Dr Danie Cronje, the current chairman of Absa, Volkskas ‘took over’ Glazer’s 25% share of Volkskas International in 1984, the year that Glazer died. Absa also owns 26% (increased to 50% in 2003?) of Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe and 55% of National Bank of Commerce Ltd (Tanzania) (McGregor’s Who Owns Whom 2004 edition).
The 1973 annual report for BE stated clearly and simply that its fixed assets included mineral rights and that its dividends took the form of ‘income received from mineral rights’. While no further income from mineral rights was listed in subsequent reports, the ownership of mineral rights remained a feature of the company’s fixed assets, until they were transferred to Tati in 1987 prior to the company’s ‘voluntary liquidation’.
A letter from the Zambian Registry of Lands and Deeds, dated 5 June 2003, confirmed that ‘farms No 157a, 158a and 159a were compulsorily acquired under section 19 of the Lands Acquisition Act of 1969’. It also confirmed that ‘Tati Company Limited currently owns farms No. 709 and 726’.
In a letter dated 24 August 1995, addressed to Mr J Levison of Leviton Boner Consulting, the administrators disputed a valuation by Leviton Boner of the assets of the Trust. Leviton Boner were acting for Michele attempting to secure her rights to settlement of the first tranche in terms of the will, which had been due since July 1994; they were also arguing for an early settlement of her share of the estate. In the letter the administrators argued for a 50% discount of the ‘unimproved land’ belonging to Tati Company due to the ‘uncertain and long-term nature’ of the land. They put the value of such a discount at R9 743 548. This, of course, included the assets that had once belonged to BE, which by then was in ‘voluntary liquidation’.
The reasons for the voluntary liquidation of BE were given by the administrators in a memorandum dated 12 December 1995 responding to queries raised by Hofmeyr Attorneys on behalf of Michele a few weeks earlier.
The reasons they gave were as follows:
1. ‘The company was sustaining losses in the years prior to liquidation;
2. ‘There was a threat by the Zimbabwean government of the expropriation of farms belonging to non-citizen farmers;
3. ‘There was a threat that squatters would move onto the farms, which squatters would have been difficult to evict;
4. ‘Zimbabwean exchange control regulations prohibited the remittance of funds from Zimbabwe to South Africa and the Administrators were not prepared to send money into Zimbabwe;
5. ‘During the lifetime of the late Mr Bernard Glazer, Embassy Investments, a South African company owned by Glazer Bros, borrowed monies from [BE] amounting to some Z$1,8 million. The administrators did no wish to remit funds to Zimbabwe in repayment of that loan, notwithstanding the periodical requests by the Zimbabwean authorities to do so;
6. ‘A large amount of estate duty became payable in Zimbabwe on the death of the late Me Bernard Glazer. This liability arose from the holding of his shares in Tati Company Limited by Glazer Bros Investments (Zimbabwe). Here again, the administrators were not prepared to remit funds to Zimbabwe in payment of such duty and the necessary funds were provided by the liquidation with the consent of the authorities.’
Press reports about land grabs in Zimbabwe started in 1999. Michele recorded in a conversation with her attorney that her brother Sam had boasted to her that they’d got out of Zimbabwe ‘just in time’. Could it be that they had known what was coming?
After all, the chaos seems to have served them well in terms of undervaluing the estate: Bernard Glazer was busy – and successful – his whole life. He’d stamped his authority on the African scene along with his brother Sam in the 1950s, when they spent at least £5 million acquiring some of the biggest landholding companies in Africa. This excluded controlling bids for Central Mining & Investment Corp.- Rand Mines ( 15 million pounds) and London Rhodesia (Lonhro). Based on the audited balance sheet of the Glazer Will Trust as at 28 February 1995 “the shares and bearer warrants in The Bechuanaland Exploration Company Plc (BEC) held by Glazer Bros. Investments (Zimbabwe)(Pvt) Ltd. and ultimately Amarena Holdings in Panama were omitted from the COMPUTATION OF FIRST DISTRIBUTION TO MICHELE GLAZER as BEC is in voluntary liquidation” .What happened to those principal investments acquired in over 40 leading industrial , Mining and Finance Companies acquired with in the 1950,s with assets worth over 1 million pounds. ?
By the time the first Liquidation & Distribution (L&D;) accounts were prepared 40 years later, the administrators could only find assets worth some R16 million; by the time of the second and final L&D; it had actually shrunk to a dutiable amount of R12,8 million. The Glazer Will Trust was also placed into voluntary liquidation in 2000.
Meanwhile, Donald Gordon, who had been an articled clerk at Kessel Feinstein when Glazer was already a millionaire, has since become a billionaire. At the time of his death Glazer held 2 000 shares in Liberty Holdings Ltd, valued at R21 100. Retired Sage chief Louis Shill was another ex-Kessel Feinstein protégé when the Glazers already owned great chucks of Africa. Shill retired to Nettleton Road in Clifton, Cape Town, the most expensive little street in Africa, where a mansion on the hill costs in excess of R25 million. Electronics billionaire Bill Venter lives in a glacier-like mansion in this street and a security development has been proposed that is intended for the likes of George Bush Sr, who has apparently become a regular visitor to South Africa.
If Bernard Glazer’s administrators are to be believed, he did not enjoy similar success with his finances. Instead, his growth levelled out in what, if it was true, would be one of the most spectacularly poor portfolio showings of modern history.
Top Johannesburg leaders pay tribute to Feinstein as he retires [Grant Thornton Press Release 10 May 2002]: ‘Julius Feinstein, who officially retired as senior partner of Grant Thornton Kessel Feinstein recently, was honoured with a function held at the Sandton Civic Art Gallery on Tuesday 7 May. The function was attended by prominent Johannesburg figures including Justice Richard Goldstone of the Constitutional Court; Louis Shill, Chairman of Sage Group Limited; C.A Jaffe, Chairman of the Securities Regulation Panel; Chris Liebenberg, Nedcor Chairman; Malcolm Segal, Chief Executive, NIB-MDM, amongst many other prominent community figures. Justice Goldstone spoke glowingly of his long friendship and professional associations with Feinstein. He paid tribute to Feinstein’s valuable contribution to the Special Court Hearing Income Tax Appeals. Shill spoke about Feinstein, the friend and advisor. He reminisced on his time as an articled clerk in Feinstein’s office and talked about Sage’s client relationship with the firm, spanning many decades and said that Feinstein had been a loyal friend and business advisor to himself and to Sage. Segal, who was also part of the speaker’s panel spoke warmly about Feinstein as a mentor during his time as Managing Partner of the Johannesburg Office and National Chairman of Grant Thornton Kessel Feinstein.
Sean Meyersfeld, Feinstein’s grandson and a Vice President at Credit Suisse First Boston, spoke on Feinstein as a family man. Visibly overwhelmed Feinstein said:
“If I hadn’t enjoyed it, I simply wouldn’t have stayed 67 years, 60 of which have been as a partner.”