COMPETITION APPEAL COURT MATTER: MEDIA RELEASE

FYI

Just received the ff:


MEDIA RELEASE RE HORSERACING
COMPETITION APPEAL COURT MATTER

20 March 2013

For immediate release


1. This merger in respect of which Ms Kema/ ARG seeks to appeal to the Competition Appeal Court involves the sale in two transactions of the Western Province horse racing assets of a company called Gold Circle to a newly formed shelf company known as Kenilworth Racing. The two transactions considered are: first a demerger of the Western Cape assets and operations of Gold Circle (Pty) Ltd from Gold Circle to Viacor Trade 72 trading as Kenilworth Racing Pty (Ltd) and, secondly, a sale of the shares of Kenilworth Racing to the Thoroughbred Horseracing Trust, a significant shareholder in Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Ltd.
2. Ms Kema/ARG had, prior to the notification of the merger, lodged a complaint in June 2011 with the Competition Commission. The complaint dealt with, among others, her intended acquisition of Arlington Racecourse in Port Elizabeth from a party that had relations with a party to the merger.
3. Ms Kema/ARG objected once the merger was notified to the Commission. The Competition Commission prohibited the merger on 19 March 2012. It is noteworthy that Ms Kema/ARG was the sole objector.
4. The merging parties referred the prohibition to the Tribunal on 2 April 2012 and The Competition Tribunal approved the merger on 15 November 2012.

5. It appears that the Tribunal did not consider any of the grounds advanced by Ms Kema as being material in determining whether or not the merger was to be upheld.
6. Ms Kema filed a notice of appeal with the Competition Appeal Court on 29 November 2012.
7. The parties to the merger stated that Ms Kema was not qualified and did not have the locus standi to appeal the decision of the Tribunal.
8. The Judge President of the Competition Appeal Court asked Ms Kema to make written submissions regarding the issue of locus standi. Through her legal team headed by Ms Soni of Burmeister De Lange Soni Inc of Port Elizabeth and Advocate Mooki of Sandown Chambers in Sandton written submissions have been submitted to the Competition Appeal Court. In these submissions it is strongly contended that Ms Kema and ARG do indeed clearly have locus standi to Appeal the decision and that it is not as if Ms Kema/ARG walked off the street and decided to appeal the decision of the Tribunal to the Competition Appeal Court as was intimated.
9. The reasons advanced, amongst others, in the legal submissions made to the Competition Appeal Court are that:
• Ms Kema was initially the sole objector to the Merger when the matter was before the Competition Commission. She also has a pending complaint lodged with the Competition Commission in June 2011 against Phumelela and Gold Circle and is an affected Party.
• Ms Kema/ARG attended the pre-trial hearing of the Competition Tribunal and was given the choice of allowing the Competition Commission to raise the issues as per her objection to the merger or to raise any additional issues as an Intervening Party. Ms Kema/ARG, for various reasons, agreed to allow the Competition Commission to protect her interest, believing that as agreed with the Commission she would be a witness in the Competition Tribunal Hearing. The Commission failed to subpoena Ms Kema/ARG. As a result, Ms Kema’s through her Attorneys wrote to the Competition Commissioner and to the Chairman of the Competition Tribunal, advancing reasons why she should testify at the hearing of the Competition Tribunal. Eventually Ms Kema did testify and it is submitted that it cannot be denied now by the Merging Parties that Ms Kema/ARG is an interested Party.
• The Tribunal stated in reasons for their judgement that the concerns raised by Ms Kema/ARG are not merger specific, as those concerns pertained to the entity to which Gold Circle wished to sell its assets and that such concerns were irrelevant to the context of the merger. The complaint by Ms Kema/ ARG lodged with the Commission in fact show that Ms Kema/ARG did in fact raise issues of substance that do bear on competition in the horseracing industry, unlike the characterization of the concerns by the Tribunal.
10. The merging Parties have 10 days to make representation to the Competition Appeal Court should they wish to do so.
Urmila Soni
Burmeister De Lange Soni Inc
soni@burmeisters.co.za
Cell Number: 0833266875

for us simpletons could somebody explain what this means ?

what this picture means re hibs? the empty vessel make the most noise? <

what this woman want from racing? i say again she is the bad news that can do nothing to improve. she cant pay for her bills it is document be fore by john freedman and other guys now she want to run a race course, she has more chance of fly to the moon. Ay gamisou i dont under stand what is it she want be sides the money

Take a straw

what that mean pls scotia i relly dont now?

I am just guessing that was Bobs interpretation of what does the outcome mean????
His reply is " take a straw" or " no idea"

We will need a couple of our clever posters to decipher

.....It's called.....Clutching at straws.....

Kenilworth racing ... is that a "shelf" company or a "shell" company. Never heard of a "shelf" company, but I'm not a lawyer or a businessperson.

Clutch at straws

Meaning

Try any route to get out of a desperate situation, no matter how unlikely it is to succeed.

Origin

It is only since the mid-19th century that we have been clutching at straws. Even more recently, the 'grasp at straws' version has become commonplace, especially in the USA. Prior to that, desperate people would 'catch at a straw'. That usage of 'catch' was commonly used in mediaeval England, by which was meant 'obtain/achieve'; for example, John Wycliffe used it in his 1382 translation of the Bible into English, in 1 Timothy 6:12:

Stryve thou a good strif of feith, catche everlastyng lyf

By the 17th century, in the King James Version, this had migrated to:

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life

Our present day ambitions are more prosaic and we only use that sense of 'catch' now to catch trains, buses and, occasionally, colds.

A straw was chosen as the height of futility as a means of rescue. Being, as it was, a flimsy and virtually valueless waste product, it was often used as a synonym for the most unimportant and trifling of objects. 'Don't give/care a straw' was an indication of indifference, a 'man of straw' was an insubstantial adversary, and to 'condemn someone to straw' was to declare them ready for the madhouse.

'To clutch at straws' is now used as a figurative phrase, to describe any desperate situation. When the expression was coined it specifically referred to drowning. The notion of a drowning man anxiously seeking 'any port in a storm' was first expressed by Sir Thomas More, in A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, 1534:

A man in peril of drowning catchest whatsoever cometh next to hand... be it never so simple a stick.

More used the imagery on several occasions, but didn't mention straw in any of them. The 'catch at a straw' version of the proverb is first recorded in the English cleric John Prime's Fruitful and Brief Discourse, 1583:

We do not as men redie to be drowned, catch at euery straw.

The metaphor expresses futility rather well. Straws do float, but a drowning man would have to be pretty much out of other ideas if he put any reliance on it bearing his weight.

Moving on to the 19th century, 'catch' has fallen from favour and we find an early mention of the current 'clutch at straws' version in The New-York Mirror, 1832:

... as drowning men clutch at straws.

On to the 21st century and you no longer need to be drowning or desperate to clutch at straws - straw clutch bags have become fashion items.

See also: the

ah ok the penny drop thanks (tu)

And here I'm thinking the pic had something to do with all the pretty colours...