After Maxwell Mokoteli installed a security gate at his apartment, the body corporate of Viking Villas in Kraaifontein pursued him all the way to the High Court, where it obtained a sequestration order.

A Sunday Times report says Mokoteli’s nine-year ordeal ended this month when a Cape Town judge rescinded the order.

But the body corporate’s lawyer said it was ‘seriously considering an appeal’.

The legal battle began shortly after Mokoteli bought his two-bedroomed apartment in 2013 and installed the gate. About a year later, the body corporate told him it did not comply with Viking Villas’ rules and he must remove it or pay a R500 monthly fine.

In an affidavit, Mokoteli said other units had ‘exactly the same gate’ and he did not remove it.

The body corporate issued summonses and obtained default judgments against him. Then it took him to the Kuils River Magistrate’s Court over unpaid levies before obtaining a final sequestration order against him in the High Court.

In 2017, the body corporate obtained an order declaring the property ‘specifically executable’ and the sheriff attached it.

Mokoteli brought an application to rescind the default judgment in 2018 and reached an agreement with the body corporate, which was made an order of the court, to pay the arrears he owed and remove the gate.

However, he withheld more payments in 2020 when he realised the body corporate had not restored his privileges, and faced a demand for R155 800.

The sequestration order was granted in January 2021, notes the Sunday Times report.

In his rescission application, Mokoteli said the body corporate claimed he had no assets to liquidate even though he is married in community of property, has a paid-up vehicle worth R170 000 and his bond payments are up to date.

Now Judge Babalwa Mantame has found Mokoteli had not committed any ‘act of insolvency’ and rescinded the sequestration.

She ordered the body corporate to pay the legal costs.

Full Sunday Times report

Judgment