Edwafin gets honest and I get the physical once over

Final Honesty
Yesterday, midday I - like I suspect many of us did - received an sms from Edwafin. It stated the company's regrets that the court had placed them in provisional liquidation. The previous sms from Patrick was on 15 December 2008 - the day our cheques were cancelled - telling us that they were closing shop for the holidays. There we have two truths via sms, and in between nothing but conjectures, evasions, agression and BS. Congratulations Patrick, at least you didn't close shop with a lie.

Handsome Me
Amongst all the anonymi to this page we have had very few antagonistic ones. Obviously anomousnesses are ideal for those with small frontal lobes, as they will remain unknown. But that is in itself a falacy: - the universe knows them, and then they have to look at themselves every now and then in the mirror, and presto there we have anonymous, face to face. I do appreciate the other anonymi for coming up for me. However, I'm not offended and would like to express my compassion and understanding for the pain and hurt anonymous experienced yesterday. It reminds one of the story of the wife who loved her husband dearly, like a god he was. Then he did the unforgivable and she discovered it. She could not beat him up, he was too strong and she still loved him. She turned around and kicked the dog for which she otherwise had great fondness, but conveniently he was there. I was happy to be your dog for the day and am glad that you spend so much time in cyberspace with me. What puzzles me somewhat - and that is not so unusual in itself - is which picture anonymous has been looking at. For your info, the chappie at the top of the page, under the Edwafin logo, is Patrick Stapleton, himself not too shabby. However, I'm right at the bottom of the page, inconspicuous and unaffable.

Short note to Marc
Thanks for siccing me in your report for FIN24 (click here) and pointing out my confusion with isses and are's.

Am I closing the Blog?
One anonymous wondered if I was closing down the blog. I have thought about it, but I don't think it is time yet. There is still too much that needs to happen. Yes, Edwafin has closed its doors but there is still the process of liquidation that needs to take place, while I am still collecting names and suggestions for a possible class action. In connection with the possible class action, I intend to start a sister blog to this one as soon as the number of interested persons have reached a certain level. This new blog will only be open for viewing and posting to members who want to participate. More about this in due course.
If you do insist though, I will remove my picture from the blog as I do not wish to affront your sensibilities for beauty.

The Court Order
A good number of readers have downloaded the Judge's order from my web site, and I'm sure that most will agree that the Judge's arguments are immaculate and sensible, and that the conclusion that he reached could hardly have been different. As sad as it all is, it does restore some confidence in some processess of our society. Somewhere though, some confusion must have arisen. I'm sure that Patrick had told us that 20 DMC cars were on order. Perhaps a few were cancelled in the interim.

Actually events overtook me somewhat, and I should have realized that it would. But I was going to devote some time to the Klynsmith mystery. It all seems a bit pointless now, doesn't it. however, I would like to thank one of our anonymousses, for cheeting by clicking on the picture and peeping at the names of the photos the other day. To make things worse, you compared me with Carole Gardiner. You are banned from these pages for life - yours or mine which ever takes the longest.

It is now Saturday 15:30 and as I was writing the last line, Gardiner left a new comment on our blog. As promised I have published it and I won't comment - you can do that. However, please note that Mario and the various anonymousses have now become a new unified individual. It is called creating a new manifestation - Marinymous.

Carole: nothing would please me more if you could and would vindicate yourself. You are a part of our reality, as we are part of yours. If we could co-exist in harmony it would help elevate the conciousness of the universe - even if it is ever so slightly. That is why you are welcome to keep on commenting on this blog and I will continue to publish your comments. To make it easier for you, please become a follower of the blog and contribute to the blog in your own name instead of as "anonymous".

Ex-employees request

I thought that I was done, but had forgotten two matters that need to be brought under the attention of ex-employees.
One of the ladies wrote yesterday that she had a dilemma as far as her tax - IRP5 is concerned. Apparently she has not received her IRP5 from Edwafin, nor some of the last salary slips that proves that tax was deducted from her salary. Others have reported issues in similar vein. It seems that there is also a problem with pension deductions that essentially dissolved into thin air.

My suggestion to the lady was that she immediately contact SARS and inform them of the situation, and if other ex-employees in the same predicament follow suit it would probably strengthen your case. Another idea would be to consult with a labour lawyer, they are usually rather nifty in such circumstances. What you should not do is procrastinate or wait until the fan is blowing at gale force - act now.

Suggestions from other ex-employees would be very welcome.

Then my friend Marc Ashton of Fin 24 has invited any ex- or current employee with gripes and tales of woe to contact him, even if you would want to stay anonymous. He is an excellent reporter, and I can vouch that he will respect your wishes. Below is Marc's invitation in full:

If there are any Edwafin employees who would like to put forward their side of the story in the media and not be "tarred" with the same brush I'd love to hear from you.

Marc Ashton
Fin24.com
marca@fin24.com
082-561-1585

FIN24, FSB, NPA and Documents

FIN24
Marc Ashton of FIN24 visited me this morning. He is a very nice, and intelligent young man who appears very sincere and wise.

Marc will in future be following the Edwafin story on FIN24, and has invited anybody who would like to share information or experiences to email him at marca@fin24.com, or to call him on his cell phone: 082-561-1585. Perhaps Marc will also remember to see if he can find a photograph of Carole Gardiner in their files - it would give one such a feeling of completeness to have them all in focus; a happy family.

Documents
Then, I have made all the documents that are included in this blog public and downloadable. Thanks to modern technology, that took merely a few clicks of the mouse button. There are a few documents in my possession that have not yet been published yet, and these include the copies of the prospectuses that I have managed to obtain. They are for the debenture series, C and D (what an adventure it was to obtain those!). I would like to offer copies of these prospectuses to any who would like to have them - even if your debentures are part of another issue, it may be handy to know that the contents of the prospectuses are mostly the same.
Unfortunately, these are hefty documents and cannot be transferred to the Scrib server, but what I will do is scan them and place them on my own website at www.chromatique.com. On the left hand side of the page, on the main menu there you will find the "Free Download" tab, just follow that and you will arrive at a category called "Edwafin" (how else), follow that and you will be able to download the documents that are available there. I will try and make some direct links available as the documents are uploaded to the server.
You might want to go there again in the future, as I might make available more documents as they become available.

FSB
Once before I tried to contact the FSB to see if they would be prepared to investigate the Edwafin story, and I have noticed that others have approached them as well. To date nobody seems to have had any response from them. Perhaps they have not yet realized that the holidays are over, and that a new year already started a few months ago.

I wrote another email, today and we shall see.... In any case I have added the Liason Director, Mr Russel Michaels to the email list for new postings on this blog, and let's hope that some response will be forthcoming. One should keep in mind that they should be well aware of the situations, as Mr Stapleton (CEO: Edwafin) told me some time ago that the authorities had been informed. Nevermind, though, we should keep in mind that our little Republic has many empty offices, identifiable by the customary acronyms, dotted around the country, that they possibly did not inform the correct authorities. This would never be known as information provided by Edwafin, as per usual is prity scant.

Perhaps, I may suggest one thing (amongst many others) that the FSB might want to investigate: old Patrick told me once that he had invested R10,000,000.00 in Edwafin, and let's say that he is frugal in giving himself an interest rate, no not 25%, not 20%, not 18% but only the basic 15%. That means he would receive a monthly interest of R125,000.00, and we are not talking of the interest received by other family members and colleagues. I think that I as investor would already feel som much better if they treated themself with the same restrictive measures as they do us. I am actually sure they do, but it would be nice to know for sure.

National Prosecuting Authority
An email was also written to the NPA - very famous in South Africa and I explained the Edwafin investors problems to them. Especially, the fact that the company is illegally keeping our money. We'll see what they make of it. Perhaps one's hopes should not rise to high, as they suggest that one uses the call centre, and call centres and me just don't get along very well. How, in any case, are you going to explain such a complex tale to someone over the phone. So I put them on the mailing list as well. If they don't like it, they can tell me.
Should you want to write to them as well here the address: communication@npa.gov.za.

Currently, I have a list of about 40 co-investors who I intend to sms with the details of this blog and the forum tonight. Should the reader have access to contact details of any investors, you are welcome to contact me at mkoppers@chromatique.com, and perhaps we can compare notes. With a class action being a real possibility against Edwafin and its directors it would be prudent to have as many individuals involved as possible.