The ruling in the matter in which the Mines and Energy ministry is being sued by lithium mining company Xinfeng Investment over its decision to cancel the licence it granted to it, will only be delivered on Monday.
Acting Windhoek High Court Judge Ramon Maasdorp yesterday indicated that he will deliver the ruling next week, despite it having been scheduled for yesterday.
Maasdorp will have to decide whether or not to grant the orders sought by Xinfeng, who want the court to interdict Mines and Energy minister Tom Alweendo from implementing his decision to revoke Xinfeng’s mining licence.
He will also have to decide on Alweendo’s counter-suit, where he wants the court to nullify his decision to grant the licence.
In their suit, Xinfeng is claiming that Alweendo’s decision of 28 April to revoke its 20-year mining licence was unlawful, invalid, unconstitutional, irrational and arbitrary.
The company further claims once the minister granted the licence on 6 September 2022 after a thorough investigation conducted by or on his behalf, that decision stands as lawful, and cannot be revoked by the minister outside of the powers vested upon him in terms of the Act.
It is their argument that the minister has expressly eschewed the exercise of the statutory powers conferred upon him to cancel a mining licence in terms of Section 55 of the Act, and has failed to specify any statutory provision which empowered him to revoke Xinfeng’s licence, which makes his decision unlawful and invalid.
However, Alweendo claims in his counter-suit that the technical report filed by the company for its application in December 2021 contained false or misleading information, and that parts of it were plagiarised.
This, the minister said, was done to influence his decision, thus rendering the decision he took an unlawful act.
He said the fact that the decision to grant the licence was unlawful in the first place makes it unnecessary for him to approach a court to set it aside. The decision is thus not a fact in such an event, as it was not made in good standing.
Alweendo further said misleading reports submitted by Xinfeng, which influenced the minister’s decision, were the culprits in the matter, and submitted that this behaviour of Xinfeng vitiated the granting of the licence.
Xinfeng is represented by Nambili Mhata, while Advocate Gerson Narib stood in for Alweendo.
-mamakali@nepc.com.na