Legal Articles and Guides

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.

SA’s largest clothing retailer, Edcon, has secured R2.7bn in new funding to recapitalise the cash-strapped company. A Moneyweb report says the deal effectively means Edcon, which owns Edgars, Jet and CNA, won’t be closing its doors, thus staving off what labour unions claimed would have been the country’s biggest single jobs bloodbath.

Cloete Murray, who recently landed the job of sorting out the affairs of African Global Operations, formerly Bosasa, which went into liquidation last week, has taken on another tough assignment with his appointment this week to take control of the assets of Durban power couple, S’bu and Shauwn Mpisane.

The Nino’s restaurant group – which has about 20 franchises around SA – is facing bankruptcy, with its CEO admitting there is no hope to repay debt of at least R13m. A Business Day report says Rashmikant Bhana – who has run the company for 19 years – has been provisionally sequestrated, with claims that his personal finances are intertwined with those of the company and, according to one creditor, ‘they need to be unsorted’.

Durban’s S’bu and Shauwn Mpisane could gain access to their seized assets and disrupt an ongoing probe if a dispute between SARS and the curators it appointed to oversee the couple’s possessions is not settled, court papers have revealed. SARS and the curators – Henk Strydom and Tshifhiwa Mudzusi – are set to make their arguments in the KZN High Court (Durban) today.

A company falling under the umbrella of controversial state contractor Bosasa has had its contract with the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture terminated and has been ordered to remove its equipment from the commission’s premises, notes BusinessLIVE.

The business rescue practitioners of eight Gupta companies have approached the court to liquidate the family’s Oakbay Investments. In the founding affidavit filed with the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), Tegeta Exploration and Resources, which has been in business rescue for a year, said it is owed a total of R3.8m by Oakbay Investments, notes BusinessLIVE.

The curtain was finally brought down on Bosasa’s corruption enterprise as the company announced it was going into liquidation after it was reported that banks – FNB and Absa – were closing the company accounts, as well as the accounts of the whistle-blower and former bag-man Angelo Agrizzi, says a Daily Maverick report.

A forensic investigation has revealed about R80m said to have been illegally invested in VBS Mutual Bank by rogue officials at the state-owned Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) was actually deposited into an FNB corporate cheque account belonging to the now-insolvent bank, says a Mail & Guardian report.

Having to write off bad debt is one thing – having to pay in even more money for the privilege is just adding insult to injury. Yet that is exactly the danger you face if one of your debtors is sequestrated or liquidated (we start off by explaining the different terminology) and you prove your claim without considering the “danger of contribution”.

Absa has been accused by an exotic car dealership of trying to bully it into liquidation with claims that it owes it more than R400m, says a Business Day report. The owners of Ballito-based SMD Group – which sells Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis – dispute the amount and said Absa had ignored an offer from a private equity firm to buy the company for almost R200m.

In an application a Fin24 report suggests could ultimately lead to the collapse of the Gupta empire, business practitioners for a Gupta linked-company are accusing another Gupta-linked company of fabricating a ‘management agreement’ in court to avoid being liquidated.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum says it may have to have Julius Malema and the EFF declared bankrupt in an attempt to recover legal costs that they owe the organisation, notes a TimesLIVE report. The organisation said that according to its estimates, it was still owed more than R400 000 by Malema and the EFF but that the sheriff of the court had found assets to the value of only R66 550 in the EFF’s head office in Johannesburg on 9 November.

The liquidation of VBS Mutual Bank will allow criminal and civil proceedings against those responsible for its demise to pick up pace, and will allow for the recovery of money from those who looted or owed the bank, says a Business Day report. The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) yesterday granted an order for the liquidation of VBS after an application by the SA Reserve Bank's Prudential Authority was unopposed by respondents, which includes the bank and the Minister of Finance.