The Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) says it is committed to reviving its operations after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in January overturned a liquidation order against it granted in 2017.

Redisa said the SCA judgement found that former environmental affairs minister Edna Molewa, who instructed the order but died last year, had conducted a persistent campaign to ruin the organisation and take over its assets based on misrepresentation, selective reporting, contradictions and lack of comprehension.

"The SCA found the minister’s claim that Redisa’s directors had not declared their interests in management company Kusaga Taka Consulting was false; the SCA found that contrary to the Minister’s claims, Kusaga Taka’s management fee was 18 percent of the total levy, less than the 20 percent allowed by the plan." it said.

"The SCA found that the minister was wrong and misleading to allege an alarming and sinister dissipation of cash at Redisa; the SCA found that the depletion of the company’s reserves was due to the fact that the Minister had made direct attempts to cut off its funding source - the tyre levy," Redisa said

The SCA also found that the minister did not have sufficient concerns to act urgently and her skewed disclosures and non-disclosures were extensive; that the allegation Redisa executives were excessively remunerated was false and that the court order that Redisa assets be distributed to the Waste Management Bureau (WMB) "patently unlawful", Redisa added.

Redisa was set up in 2012 to manage the national waste tyre problem and carry out a programme it says had created more than 200 new businesses supported by more than 3,000 employees in collection, transport, depots and processing plants by 2017.

"From the time Redisa was set up, our innovative waste management model was commended for its efficiency and effectiveness and the value it created for all its stakeholders, including the thousands of previously unemployed who were able to make a living from tyre collection, storage and processing," executive director Stacey Davidson said.

"Our goal now is to ensure that we are able to resume operations and again maximise the value to all stakeholders and, in the process, help drive growth in the economy. We stand by our programme’s effectiveness in dealing with this serious environmental situation, exacerbated by the minister’s ill-informed actions."