Legal Articles and Guides

Prominent Eastern Cape attorney Dumisani Tabata’s R500 000 defamation lawsuit against Johannesburg lawyer Themba Langa may have become at least financially academic after Langa was recently sequestrated. But, notes a Daily Dispatch report, although Langa may now not be in a position to cough up money if the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) finds against him, Tabata will pursue the matter.

Practitioners trying to save the eight Gupta-owned companies placed under business rescue in February have had to face down 42 court cases in less than four months, says a Moneyweb report. The blizzard of litigation kicked off within days of business rescue practitioners being appointed in February.

The VBS Mutual Bank scandal has widened after controversial and politically-connected Angolan banker and millionaire Álvaro Sobrinho lost his R144m investment in the bank, according to City Press. The deal with Sobrinho – a business partner of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos’ daughter, and who owns a bank and a football club in Portugal – was allegedly brokered by ANC Limpopo provincial treasurer Danny Msiza and young businessperson Kabelo Matsepe.

Derek Cohen, receiver of the Orthotouch investment scheme, has resigned, citing among other reasons a ‘potential risk’ to himself and his family due to campaigns waged by ‘certain investor’ groups, says a Moneyweb report. It notes this step may have far-reaching implications for the 18 000 Orthotouch investors and will blur the current uncertain situation related to interest payments to investors and the various legal challenges against property magnate Nic Georgiou and Orthotouch even further.

VBS Mutual Bank's executives carried out the country's ‘biggest bank robbery’ – and did so in designer suits – an advocate has claimed in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg). Michael Antonie SC, representing the curator in the VBS matter, made the claim during applications to have executives of the mutual bank provisionally sequestrated, notes a Fin24 report.

A probe into a lawyer who was not a lawyer faces the daunting task, says a Times Select report. Evidence against the man known by three names (Patel Muhamed, Mohamed Ismail and Muhamed Ismail Patel) shows he allegedly defrauded Absa of about R17m, faked his legal qualification, and is said to have bribed staff at the office of the Master of the High Court to steal files.

Levies are the lifeblood of a sectional title scheme, and the Body Corporate has a duty to recover arrears from defaulting owners. It has the power, in addition to following standard debt collection procedures and perhaps approaching the Community Schemes Ombud for assistance, to apply for the sequestration of the owner’s estate. Indeed just the threat of a sequestration application is sometimes enough to frighten a recalcitrant debtor into paying up.

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has granted an order for the provisional liquidation of the company that owns The New Age newspaper, rebranded recently as Afro Voice. This, notes TimesLIVE, after Mzwanele Manyi and his company‚ Afrotone Media Holdings‚ launched an application last week arguing the the company was not commercially viable. Manyi bought the company from the controversial Gupta family last year.

The family trust of former VBS Mutual Bank chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi was allegedly paid nearly R5m from Vele Investments’ heist of money from VBS Mutual Bank. A Mail & Guardian report says this has emerged from the ongoing investigation by VBS curator Anoosh Rooplal into the bank’s collapse and are contained in civil claims made against VBS shareholder Vele Investments and former bank officials.

The liquidators of Aurora Empowerment Systems have launched a sequestration application against Aurora director Thulani Ngubane after he resurfaced to make a ‘strikingly similar’ bid to take control of the Gupta-linked VR Laser.

Vele Investment CEO Robert Madzonga, who is implicated in the VBS looting scandal, has vowed to defend his case despite damning allegations that he had a hand in bringing the mutual bank to its knees, says a Business Day report. The looting of the Limpopo-based bank might result in about 14 municipalities, state-owned asset management firm Public Investment Corporation and individual clients losing their money.

The state has lodged an 87-page application in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to go after the personal assets of the executives accused of looting VBS Mutual Bank of more than R1.5bn. Some of the executives allegedly lived the life of billionaires, raiding depositors’ money to purchase mansions, sports cars and a helicopter.

Steinhoff has given its creditors less than a week to agree to a three-year debt standstill that would give its board and management room to correct and restructure the business without the constant threat of liquidation proceedings. According to a Business Day report, Steinhoff implied that if sufficient creditor support is not obtained by 16 July, its key European operations could be faced with liquidation proceedings.

The Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the Justice Minister’s transformation appointment policy for insolvency practitioners in estates was irrational, discriminatory and unlikely to achieve equality. A Business Day report says Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Michael Masutha, his department and the Chief Master of the High Court had appealed against a SCA ruling that the policy – implemented in 2014 – was irrational.

The BEE partners in a subsidiary of Tubular Technical Construction (TTC) have applied for provisional liquidation of the company after it failed to honour an agreement to pay R24m in outstanding dividends. TTC had paid R11m out of an agreed R35m, but had fallen into arrears to the tune of R8.45m, according to papers filed in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), notes a Moneyweb report.