Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us here this morning.

I will immediately start with the announcement that a number of CIPRO employees have been suspended pending the outcome of a complete fraud investigation. A number of cases have also been opened with the South African Police Services (SAPS) against individuals who falsely claimed to be "agents of CIPRO" in order to commit fraud.

To date the investigation has revealed that the fraudsters falsely claimed associations with entities that were registered on CIPRO's database in order to clone legitimate businesses for financial gain.

We have zero tolerance when it comes to fraud within CIPRO. An internal fraud investigation, which commenced in January this year, has resulted in a number of changes and the general tightening up of procedures in order to combat fraud. The cloning scam was only recently uncovered and a special, multi-disciplinary task team has since been appointed by the management of CIPRO in order to conduct a full investigation into the extent of the problem. Our aim is to bring those responsible for this crime to book and to put a watertight action plan in place to prevent any future reoccurrence of this heinous crime.

A number of companies have incurred considerable financial losses through the callousness of individuals who participate in these fraudulent activities. We have locked down our systems in order to make crimes of this nature impossible in the future. We will without doubt be prosecuting the perpetrators of these crimes.

CIPRO has in the interim put a number of systems in place to safeguard companies from fraudulent activities. Apart from bringing these fraudsters to book, the management of CIPRO is doing everything within its power to further improve and strengthen systems and processes in order to combat fraudulent activities. One such measure includes the implementation, with immediate effect, of 'Practice Note Number 5' indicating changes in the lodgement of name reservations. Additional information is also required from the applicant should an association with an existing company be applicable.

The new Customer Verification system is another way in which CIPRO is clamping down on fraud. We recently launched the Customer Verification system whereby customers need to be verified and authenticated by a registered Commissioner of Oaths before they will be allowed to affect electronic changes on their company profile. This 'human intervention' will go a long way in assisting us in rooting out fraudulent activities.

We would like to assure business owners that CIPRO is doing everything within our power to safeguard registered entities against fraud. We are convinced that the new systems that we have put in place will go a long way in assisting us with the eradication of fraud.

It is both inconceivable and unacceptable that this could have happened. We wish to provide our clients with the assurance that we have done everything within our means to block possible avenues that could be exploited in order to commit crimes of this nature.

Thank you.

Statement issued by CIPRO CEO, Keith Sendwe, Johannesburg August 21 2009

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