Draft:Tuwani Matthews Mulaudzi

Matthews Tuwani Mulaudzi (born 07 June 1970) is a former Intellectual Property lawyer and a South African businessman. Mulaudzi was born at Ha-Ramahantsha village near Louis Trichardt (Makhado) in Limpopo province. He quit law to focus on business in 1997. Mulaudzi started the Luvhomba Group and with 21 subsidiaries as managing director. Luvhomba Group has diverse interests in mining, IT, consulting, acquisition of businesses, ventures, service rendering and retail.

Legal battle

In 2014 the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)] applied for a court order to freeze Mulaudzi’s assets – including a palatial house in Waterkloof Ridge in Pretoria - and cash, all worth about R2.5 billion. The court action emanated from a dispute Mulaudzi had with Old Mutual over an investment of R33 million. He was then charged with fraud, theft, money laundering and racketeering. According to the AFU, this related to a R33m Investment Frontiers policy, he took out with Fairbairn Capital, underwritten by Old Mutual which was then ceded to Nedbank. Mulaudzi was charged for money-laundering when he was accused of transferring R48 million – the full value of the investment - through his FNB bank account to the MMI Group Ltd to buy investments. He then transferred the proceeds to other accounts.

Acquittal

After seven years of trial, the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court acquitted Mulaudzi of all 29 charges in June 2022. Mulaudzi’s business empire had already crumbled. Despite his acquittal, Mulaudzi had to fight officials of the Master of the High Court, Trustees, Curators, Liquidators and their lawyera for withholding his assets. He reported the corruption to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). On the other hand, he is launching a lawsuit against the State for wrongful arrest, trauma and loss of income in the region of billions of rands.

New business deals

Following his acquittal, Mulaudzi began re-building his life. Luvhomba Group has signed two new multi-billion rand deals with Chinese companies.

The first one is for the development of mines in Mpumalanga province. Luvhomba Group signed a contract with Zhejiang Free Trade Zone National Lead Import and Export Co.Ltd. Luvhomba Group owns prospecting and mining rights in South Africa.

The lifespan of the proposed mines is over 30 years on land with trillions of reserves in situ. According to the Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties, Zhejiang Free Trade Zone National Lead Import and Export Co.Ltd company will provide all the funding as well as mining technology and equipment needed to start the mines. In 24 June 2024, Luvhomba signed a three-year arms deal with Zhejiang Free Trade Zone National Lead Import and Export Co.,Ltd. Luvhomba Group will serve as conduit and facilitator for weapon deals between and African countries willing to purchase weapons from China for a period of three years. Zheijang has a relationship with China Poly Group, China Ordinance Group and other professional research and development and production units of military equipment in China.

Academic Life

• Registered for B.Proc: 1988- 1991(University of the North-Turfloop).
• Registered for LLB: 1992- 1993 (University of the North-Turfloop).
• Registered for LLM: 1994-1995 (Masters in Law- Constitutional Litigation) (University of Pretoria).
• Registered for Certificate in Mining & Minerals: Wits University, in association with the Mining Qualifications Authority.

During his student days, Mulaudzi participated in student political activism and was a student leader. Among the structures he served, was the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL)(formerly. SAYCO), the South African National Students Congress, Lutheran Church’s Students Christian Fellowship, The Law Students Council and various Student Representative Council committees etc.

Work Experience

While pursuing his LLM (Masters degree) in Constitutional Practice and Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, Mulaudzi was appointed a Tutor and Academic Support and Development Officer at the Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.

Also, when studying for his LLM, Mulaudzi simultaneously attended the Practical Legal Training (School for Legal Practice) in Pretoria.

At that time he was registered as a candidate - attorney at Moseneke & Partners in Johannesburg, one of the first commercial black law firms in the country, where he received extensive training in general litigation and commercial work.

He later joined Adams & Adams of Pretoria: Patents, Trademark, Copyright Attorneys. This is where he received extensive training and exposure in aspects of Intellectual Property Law, Franchising, Competition Law, Licensing, Advertising Law, Trademark Law, Copyright, Designs and Commercial Law.

Boards and Memberships

1. Boards:-

(i) Managing Director: Luvhomba Group & its Subsidiaries.

(ii) Board member/Trustee/Director: Board of Trustees & Directors: Tateni Home Care Nursing Services - a community-based organisation. (v) Board member/Trustee: Phoenix Awards Foundation. (vi) Board member/Trustee: The New Millenium Society. (vii) Board member/Director: Phoenix Communications. (viii) Board member /Non-Executive Director: Boni Landscaping Africa, a division of Top Turf Group. (ix) Board member/ Executive Director: Universal Diamond Venture Company. (x) Board member/Non-Executive Director: Vukani Holdings. (xi) Director: PowerFoods Group. (xii) Board member/ Trustee: Family Institute of South Africa, an NGO. (xiii) Director: Sebtech Group. (xiv) Director: Executive Models Group

2. Affiliations:-

(i) Former Branch Member of the Black Management Forum. (ii) Former Branch Member of the National Democratic Lawyers of South Africa. (iii) Former Member of the Enterprise Development Forum.

Conferences & Papers delivered

1. Government Tendering: Maximize your chances of winning lucrative government contracts - Passing economic benefits on to small, medium and micro enterprise(SMMEs)- become a conduit of finance to SMMEs. 2. Government tendering: Achieving socio-economic objectives with the procurement system without forfeiting the principles of good financial management. 3. Government Tendering: Benchmark your BEE and upliftment strategy by implementing a black economic procurement policy. 4. Government Tendering: Barriers o entry for SMMEs, bridging the IT and funding divide. 5. Government Tendering: achieving your social investment and profitability objectives by mobilising community empowerment and local entrepreneurship through public private partnership. 6. Black Economic Empowerment: Evaluating Black Economic Empowerment Small Medium Macro Enterprise Programmes -The current reality & proposals for improvement. 7. Black Economic Empowerment: Highlighting the difficulties faced by small business. 8. Black Economic Empowerment: Actively setting targets for your SMMEs partnerships to ensure viability of your organisation’s BEE initiatives. 9. Black Economic Empowerment: Establishing reasons why SMMEs in South Africa do not have the same level of institutional support as SMMEs in other continents enjoy to compensate for structural disadvantage that this creates. 10. Black Business Summit: Transforming African businesses into global corporations through BEE. 11. Black Business Summit: Creating an enabling environment for funding SMMEs. 12. Black Business Summit: Strategies for increasing access to markets for SMMEs. 13. Black Business Summit: Addressing the skills shortage problem, which is at the core of failure of many SMMEs. 14. Black Business Summit: Putting financing structures in place to help SMMEs to grow. 15. Black Business Summit: Helping SMMEs develop networks necessary to achieve business independence. 16. Black Business Summit: Creating, promoting and supporting a culture of entrepreneurship. 17. Government Tendering: reducing contractual risk by forming secure service level agreements. 18. Government Tendering: Setting objectives to ensure a profitable Service level agreement. 19. Government Tendering: Forming secure partnerships by structuring a legally sound service level agreement. 20. Government Tendering: Creating awareness of the legalities surrounding breach of contract. 21. Government Tendering: Getting ahead of your competitors by negotiating the best service level agreement. 22. Legal conferences: The proposed BEE law - will it serve as an adjunct or deterrent to BEE and investment?

References

1. https://peopleseye.co.za/Post/OnGetPostPublic?title=businessman-lost-r184bn-in-wrongful-prosecution-–-actuary-report-20241123 2. https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/vindicated-businessman-bounces-back-after-signing-a-multibillion-rand-arms-deal-with-chinese-company-c5eb3241-f3d8-4e6c-aab1-efa95ec03c6b 3. https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/pretoria-businessman-sues-saps-and-npa-for-r5-billion-over-unlawful-prosecution-20240616 4. https://peopleseye.co.za/Post/OnGetPostPublic?title=mulaudzi-rises-from-the-ashes-with-a-r2bn-mining-deal-20240613 5. https://peopleseye.co.za/Post/OnGetPostPublic?title=businessman-acquitted-in-a-lengthy-trial-not-yet-out-of-the-woods-as-he-fights-‘corrupt’-master-of-the-high-court-officials-20240511 6. https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/vindicated-businessman-wants-siu-to-help-recover-seized-assets-and-r105-million-cash-20240108 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4zx_W8rUtw