A company is considering further legal action after the JSE fined and censured it for alleging that there had been manipulation of its shares.
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Mantengu Mining, publicly censured and fined by the JSE days ago, is considering further legal options, including the possibility of seeking reconsideration before the Financial Services Tribunal or a review by the High Court.
The JSE censured Mantengu and imposed a suspended R100,000 fine after finding that the company published allegations of share price manipulation that the bourse said were not adequately substantiated.
The censure follows two voluntary announcements by Mantengu on the JSE’s Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) on May 8 and May 9, 2025, titled “share price manipulation – criminal complaint” and “warning of shorting risk”. The JSE says the announcements contained “speculative, unverified and unsupported” allegations.
Mantengu responded Wednesday that it was incorrect to claim that its allegations were without evidence.
Mantengu’s board said it held written communications from two Mantengu shareholders who had been approached by Standard Bank Online Share Trading (purportedly acting on behalf of the JSE) to lend 1.842 million MTU shares to settle an unmatched trade and a draft securities lending agreement, purportedly signed on behalf of the JSE, which confirmed the proposed borrowing of those shares.
The board also held written confirmation from Standard Bank that the shares would be returned – after one shareholder raised concerns that her shares had been moved out of her brokerage account without a signed agreement, i.e. without her permission.
The board also held evidence of a criminal complaint filed with the Hawks (Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation) following about 18 months of investigative work.
Mantengu questioned the JSE’s lack of transparency about the fact that the fine and sanction resulted from an internal objection process, in which a reduction was secured from an initially proposed R500,000, with no independent adjudicator and no public disclosure of what was originally proposed. The R100,000 fine was only arrived at after Mantengu formally objected.
“In Mantengu’s view, this further illustrates the structural problem with the JSE acting as investigator, prosecutor, adjudicator, and publisher of outcomes in a matter directly involving its own conduct,” the mining company's board said.
Regarding the reason for publication of the voluntary announcements on the JSE News Service, Mantengu’s board said that they, acting on documentary evidence of what appeared to be an attempt to borrow and settle shares in its highly illiquid stock without shareholder consent, had unanimously concluded this information was price sensitive and had to be disclosed immediately.
“The company’s position at the time, and its present position, is that the statements were not speculative, but grounded in events and documents within Mantengu’s knowledge,” the company said.
It said withholding that information would have left shareholders trading in the dark while others had access to material facts. Retracting the statement would have misled shareholders by implying that the documented events had not occurred, that the criminal complaint was unfounded, and that the concerns raised were baseless – none of which is correct,” the company said.
"Mantengu will continue to cooperate with regulators and to take professional advice to ensure compliance with its obligations under the Listings Requirements,” said CEO Magen Naidoo.
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