Legal Articles and Guides

SARS is seeking R388m in taxes owed by businessman Mark Lifman and has asked the High Court to put all his business entities under liquidation in an attempt to recoup the money.

The provisional liquidator of the VBS Mutual Bank has approached the courts to recover R2.7m loaned by the bank to cash-strapped businessperson, Brian Shivambu, younger brother of EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu. A Mail & Guardian report notes the funds are part of a R4m loan facility controversially granted to Shivambu’s company Sgameka Projects by the bank in late 2017.

A court application by a Gupta-linked company in Bermuda to secure R1bn from the estate of the Optimum Coal Mine has been rubbished as just another attempt to make the business rescue of various Gupta companies grind to a halt, says a City Press report.

An insurance group destroyed by its exposure to VBS Mutual Bank is going into liquidation – potentially destroying any hope of recovering R86m in policies belonging to more than 63 000 truck drivers. A City Press report says the Transport Sector Retirement Fund (TSRF) is the last major client of Bophelo Insurance Group, which last year lost R114m it had invested at VBS, instantly rendering it insolvent.

Disgraced Eastern Province rugby president Cheeky Watson (64) has promised to pay his struggling former players R5m in cash in the next four months. A Daily Dispatch report say if Watson fails to cough up the money in time, he faces a far greater financial burden with judgment to be taken against him for more than R23m.

Liquidators are once again back in charge of the affairs of the African Global Operations group of companies. A TimesLIVE report notes this follows an order made by the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) on Wednesday, granting liquidator Murray Cloete leave to appeal to the SCA against the 14 March judgment by the High Court.

Tycoon Roux Shabangu has expressed fear he could be bankrupted if he pays back a portion of the millions of rands that was irregularly lent to a liquidated company he co-owned. Denying that he and eight others were liable to repay the state-owned Land Bank R82m arising from a loan granted to Westside Trading 570 in 2006, Shabangu has taken the long-drawn-out legal battle to the Constitutional Court.

Thousands of military veterans are fighting a bid by the Municipal Councillors Pension Fund (MCPF) to liquidate a North West property developer to protect their stake in two vast tracts of land valued at R850m, says a Weekend Argus report. MCPF curators have applied to the Western Cape High Court to have Isago@N12 Development liquidated for failing to repay about R137m.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ruled in favour of corruption-accused company Bosasa, now known as African Global Operations (AGO), ordering provisional liquidators to return control of the company to its directors within 12 hours, says a News24 report.

The curator appointed to take control of the assets of Sbu and Shauwn Mpisane, which are under attachment by SARS, has been forced by court order to leave their properties and remove armed guards he put there to secure assets. Following an urgent application on Wednesday, KZN High Court (Durban) Judge Gregory Kruger also gave Shauwn Mpisane permission to revert to him personally if curator Cloete Murray failed to comply with his order, reports TimesLIVE.

The affairs of the African Global Operations (AGO) group of companies, formerly Bosasa, should not be under the care of the ‘rampant activities’ of liquidators who should not have been appointed in the first place. A TimesLIVE report says this submission was made in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) by AGO's counsel, Mike Hellens SC, yesterday.

Gavin Watson, CEO of Bosasa, now known as African Global Operations (AGO), was paid a R5m 'performance bonus' over and above his monthly salary of R5.7m two weeks before the company was placed under liquidation. AGO's board placed the company under voluntary liquidation on 12 February, News24 reports.

Group Five has announced it has filed for business rescue because lenders have not been willing to give it more funding. A BusinessLIVE report notes the contractor – which was given bridge funding worth R650m from a consortium of lenders in April 2018 – said its financial constraints had worsened after lenders called on guarantees relating to its disastrous Kpone power-plant project in Ghana.

Last-minute interventions by Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago and the Banking Association SA (Basa) succeeded in persuading parliamentary authorities to give the go-ahead for the processing of amendments to the Insolvency Act, which are regarded as vital for the stability of the financial system, says a Business Day report.

Khulubuse Zuma, nephew of former President Jacob Zuma, is back in negotiations with the liquidators of the Pamodzi mining group to pay more than R1.4bn he personally owes to creditors. The liquidators, headed by Johan Engelbrecht, secured a provisional liquidation order against Zuma in the KZN High Court (Durban) in January.