Patrice Motsepe still faces $195 million Tanzania claim

siteadmin — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 13:33:55 +0000

Pula Group says a Tanzanian court did not throw out its $195 million claim against Patrice Motsepe's companies, disputing African Rainbow Minerals' account. Pula Group, the mining company suing South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe and his companies for $195 million in Tanzania, has rejected African Rainbow Minerals Ltd.'s account of a court ruling this month, saying its claim has not been thrown out. ARM announced on October 14 that Tanzania's High Court had struck out Pula's case against Motsepe, ARM, African Rainbow Capital Investments and ARCH Sustainable Resources in a ruling dated Oct. 9. The Johannesburg-listed miner said it welcomed the judgment and had always regarded the claim, worth about 3.2 billion rand, as "unfounded and fabricated." "What the court struck out was Pula's application for a default judgment against ARM, Motsepe and ARCH, and it did so because Pula had not joined other parties the court considers necessary to the case. The judge did not decide whether Motsepe's companies broke any agreement." A graphite dispute Pula sued in 2023, accusing Motsepe's companies of breaking a confidentiality and non-compete agreement. It says it shared information about its graphite project in Tanzania's Lindi region with ARM in 2019, when ARM was weighing an investment. ARM did not invest. Pula says Motsepe's companies later put money into Evolution, an Australian company whose Chilalo graphite project sits next to Pula's. Its $195 million claim is based on a valuation of its project, and Stith has said damages could end up higher. Motsepe and his companies have denied the claims throughout. In April, a Gauteng High Court judge in Johannesburg ruled that African Rainbow Capital was not a party to the 2019 nondisclosure agreement, which was signed with ARM alone. Pula dropped its appeal against that decision in July, making the ruling final. Other legal fights ARM is also fighting a separate case at home. Assore Ltd., its equal partner in the Assmang iron ore and manganese joint venture, has sued ARM over control of the business, including the right to appoint executives. ARM says those claims have no merit. Motsepe, 64, founded ARM after buying underperforming gold mine shafts in 1997 and built it into a diversified miner with interests in iron ore, manganese, platinum group metals, chrome, nickel, coal and gold. He owns about 43% of the company, a stake worth about $781 million. Forbes valued his fortune at $3.5 billion in July. He is also president of the Confederation of African Football and owns the Mamelodi Sundowns soccer club.

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Patrice Motsepe still faces $195 million Tanzania claim