Shareholders cry foul as DCEO summons clash with crucial AGM, alleging plot to derail board ouster

TEBOHO KHATEBE MOLEFI

MASERU – A high-stakes corporate showdown is brewing at Naledi Funeral Planners (NFP), as several key shareholders have been summoned by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) on the same day and time as the company’s Annual General Meeting – a move they suspect is a calculated maneuver to sabotage the gathering.

Through their legal representatives, Malokotsa Associates, shareholders Thabiso Madiba (45.152%), Sidwell Jackson (12.523%), and Khojane Madiba (1.243%) – who collectively hold 58% of NFP – have formally requested the DCEO to postpone interviews scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on January 16.

The AGM is set to begin at precisely the same hour at Thetsane Office Park.

The conflict deepened when another major shareholder, holding 13.345% and nominated to replace a director facing removal, also received a summons. This brings the total shareholding called before the DCEO at 9:00 a.m. to over 70%, well above the 50% threshold required for quorum.

With proxy submission deadlines already passed, the simultaneous scheduling threatens to adjourn the AGM due to lack of quorum. Shareholders fear that if the meeting collapses, the current board could remain in office indefinitely – potentially for years – without facing a vote.

In a letter to the DCEO, Advocate LC Malokotsa highlighted a troubling link – the NFP Company Secretary who issued the AGM notice, Peter Matekane, is also a DCEO employee. The letter states, “It is a reasonable suspicion… that the DCEO is being used to alter the outcomes of the AGM to protect the interests of its employee.”

Despite the request for postponement, the DCEO has continued summoning other members, reinforcing shareholders’ suspicions of institutional interference in private corporate affairs.

The shareholders have given the DCEO until close of business on January 14 to respond. Failure to postpone, they warn, will result in an urgent court application for an interdict, alleging the summons are “unreasonable, malicious and ultimately unlawful.”

As the clock ticks, the unfolding drama raises serious questions about the intersection of state agencies and corporate governance in Lesotho.