Lonwabo Sambudla, the ex-husband of former President Jacob Zuma's daughter, Duduzile, is fighting to keep his three ultra-luxury vehicles – a Ferrari, Rolls Royce and Bentley – after falling into arrears.

Anglowealth Shariah, a financial services provider, hauled the businessman and his two companies, IMS Call Solutions and Mobi Systems Solution, before the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to compel him to return the vehicles and settle his debt. 

News24 reports that Sambudla signed surety along with his two companies on a rent-to-own agreement with Ango Wealth Shariah together with his two companies.

The financial services provider cancelled the agreements when Sambudla failed to pay R3.2m between August and December last year.

According to the judgment, Sambudla paid the amount in January ‘save for a disputed amount being penalties for late payment’.

As previously reported, he was the CEO of Lembede Investments – the investment arm of the ANC Youth League – and has scored major government contracts, including in the City of Johannesburg and national government.

According to the head of collections at Anglowealth Shariah, Yusuf Adamjee, the urgency of the matter was exacerbated by the fact Sambudla had planned to trade in the rented cars.

Adamjee, who deposed an affidavit to the court, said Sambudla approached Fouche Motors to get an extension on the late payments to Anglowealth Shariah, failing which ‘one or more of the vehicles would have to be traded in, to reduce the debt, because they could no longer afford them’.

Adamjee added that several breaches by Sambudla and his companies before August were remedied.

After August, ‘only a few sporadic payments (were) received’, he said.

News24 reports that Judge Motsamai Makume said Anglowealth Shariah was concerned the cars would be ‘destroyed, lost, hidden or as speculated by the applicant that the respondent was planning to sell and spirit the vehicles out of the country’.

However, Makume was unconvinced by this, saying there was no immediate threat while the cars were insured with Discovery.

‘On the merits, the respondents raised the issue there is a dispute as regards to the correctness of the arrears as at December 2023 and that what they paid in January 2024 settled the area in the result there was no basis to unilaterally cancel the agreement,’ Makume said.

He added he was ‘not persuaded’ that the application was urgent, but believed it should proceed on merit.

‘When the respondent settled the arrears as of December 2023, they extinguished any cause of action based on default. It was, therefore, incumbent on the applicants to issue fresh notices to place the respondents in more (default]) for arrears incurred in January 2024,’ Makume said.

Makume dismissed Anglowealth Shariah's application, saying it had failed to make a case, and ordered it to pay the cost of the respondent's counsel.

Full News24 report