Business couple Itumeleng Mafoko and his wife Mabuyi Memela are opposing a writ of execution application lodged by liquidators of VBS Mutual Bank at the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) in an attempt to compel them to repay the more than R100m debt owed by their Leratadima Trust.

City Press says it understands that the pair are set to file their responding affidavits at the High Court, after filing their notice of intention to oppose towards the end of October.

A hearing is set to commence once all the relevant parties have filed their documents.

VBS’ claim – spearheaded by liquidator Anooshkumar Rooplal – indicates that both Mafoko and Memela had bonded themselves for repayment as equal sureties of the trust when the deal was concluded between November 2015 and January 2016.

Leratadima was one of three companies chosen by government to manufacture the first batch of state-subsidised set-top boxes, as a replacement for the outgoing analogue signal for qualifying viewers.

The papers revealed that the couple had failed to make repayments according to the terms of the suretyships they had provided to the bank.

Full City Press report