PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Botswana and its former audit partner, Rudi Binedell, have been ordered to pay legal costs arising from three court defeats suffered during their long-running battle with Choppies shareholders Ramachandran Ottapathu and Farouk Ismail. The order brings to a close one of the longest running corporate lawsuits.
The costs order is part of a consent order issued by the High Court this month, which records the withdrawal of the shareholders’ multimillion-pula claim against PwC and Binedell. While the parties will otherwise bear their own costs, the audit firm remains liable for costs arising from court orders issued in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
The legal saga began in the aftermath of Choppies’ 2018 audit crisis, when delays in the publication of the retailer’s financial statements triggered the suspension of its shares from trading on both the Botswana Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Ottapathu and Ismail subsequently sued PwC and Binedell, alleging that the audit firm’s conduct caused massive losses to shareholders. The damages claim eventually grew to more than P650 million.
Although the case never reached a trial on its merits, the shareholders repeatedly prevailed in court during the six-year dispute.
Among the most significant rulings was a 2021 decision in which the High Court ordered PwC and Binedell to provide further particulars sought by the plaintiffs. The court also found there was a prima facie basis to question whether Binedell’s independence may have been compromised by discussions concerning a possible position at Choppies while audit-related matters were ongoing.
The shareholders secured another favourable ruling in 2023. PwC later escalated the fight by seeking to have proceedings declared a nullity and raising allegations against members of the judiciary. That effort was rejected by the High Court in 2025, handing the audit firm another setback. Those victories have now followed PwC to the finish line.
The final order specifically preserves the shareholders’ entitlement to costs arising from the earlier proceedings, ensuring that the audit firm leaves the litigation with the souvenir of a costs bill despite avoiding a trial on the shareholders’ damages claim. To be sure, the withdrawal means the courts never ultimately decided whether PwC was legally responsible for the losses allegedly suffered by Ottapathu and Ismail. Nor does the order award the shareholders the hundreds of millions of pula they had sought.
Yet after years of aggressively contesting the matter, PwC exits the courtroom having failed to overturn the key rulings won by the shareholders and having been ordered to pay costs arising from those defeats. The final court order ensures that the last financial consequence of the battle falls on the audit firm accused of helping to trigger one of the darkest chapters in Choppies’ history.