The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has sent an independent watchdog into one of the city’s most iconic inner-city precincts, after allegations a nightclub operator pulled strings behind the scenes of a residents’ board, leaving tenants fleeing, debts unpaid and two clubs pumping music in what may be an illegal operation.

Judge Stuart Wilson handed down the ruling yesterday in a case that lays bare the messy underbelly of inner-city apartment living in Maboneng.

At the heart of the matter is Laudefield (Pty) Ltd, a company that owns and runs two nightclubs on the ground floor of Living Moad, a sectional title scheme in Maboneng.

The scheme’s managing agent, Infinity IP (Pty) Ltd, and three section owners took Laudefield and the body corporate’s trustees to court, accusing them of running a scheme that benefits Laudefield at the expense of residents.

Their case is blunt: They argued that Laudefield had not paid what it owed the body corporate, enjoyed suspiciously cosy repayment terms that other owners would never get, and ran two nightclubs that violated zoning rules and the scheme’s regulations.

According to them, the noise had been bad enough to drive tenants out, with some terminating leases and leaving the property.

The applicants alleged Laudefield had ‘essentially captured the body corporate’, a characterisation Wilson recorded in his ruling and found credible enough to warrant urgent investigation.

The allegation was that Laudefield ‘corruptly controls the trustees and has induced them to overlook its ongoing indebtedness to the body corporate, along with its breach of zoning regulations and body corporate rules that would ordinarily forbid the running of a nightclub at the property’.

Wilson found Laudefield ‘has not paid all that it owes to the body corporate, whether under the acknowledgements of debt or otherwise’ and that ‘Laudefield enjoys suspiciously easy payment terms from the body corporate’.

The nightclubs, he found, appear to have ‘violated the relevant zoning regulations and body corporate rules and … caused a nuisance that the body corporate has declined to address’.

The trustees and Laudefield did not come to court empty-handed, according to News24. They pointed to a ruling handed down on 8 December 2025 by the Community Schemes Ombud Service. That adjudicator found Laudefield had discharged one of two debts it owed the body corporate and the respondents argued the debt question was therefore dead and buried.

However, Wilson found the Ombud ruling was so poorly reasoned it could not fairly be used to silence the residents.

Wilson appointed Charles Beckenstrater, a partner at Moodie and Robertson Attorneys, as an independent investigator with full access to the body corporate’s books, minutes, and correspondence and the power to interview all current and former trustees and managing agents.

His report is due back before Wilson within two months.

The residents had pushed for an even tougher step: stripping the trustees of their powers entirely and handing control to an outside administrator. Wilson declined, for now.

Full News24 report