The ANC might find itself without its Luthuli House headquarters and other assets after the ruling party lost its leave to appeal the attachment of its assets.
The order is to cover the R150 million it owes KwaZulu-Natal marketing company Ezulweni Investment for its work it did for the ANC’s 2019 elections campaign.
On Friday, the full Bench of judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), sitting in Bloemfontein, ruled that the ANC’s attempts to admit further evidence after the first one had lapsed had been dismissed with costs.
Ezulwini Investments, which had supplied the ANC with campaign material for the 2019 general elections but had not paid for its services, had sought the court’s intervention to recoup the money and had rejected the ANC’s R10 million offer.
In yet another landmark ruling against the ANC, the SCA dismissed the party’s latest court bid to avoid paying the branding and marketing company for its work in the build-up to the general elections in 2019.
“Two initial matters bear mentioning. The first is that the appeal had lapsed and an application was made by the ANC for its reinstatement … The second relates to an application to admit further evidence on appeal brought by the ANC … Once more, after hearing the submissions of the parties, the panel adjourned briefly and then made an order dismissing that application with costs.
“It was indicated at the time the reasons for that decision would be furnished along with the judgement of the appeal,” reads parts of the judgement made by the panel.
In a letter to the ANC legal council, AMMM Incorporated, advocate Sharfique Sarlie, of Sarlie and Associates, has requested that the ANC co-operation with the appeal order and has given the ANC until lunchtime to comply.
“As conveyed to you in our telephonic discussion earlier today, our instruction are to proceed forthwith to execute in the absence of immediate satisfaction of the judgement debt in full by your client. To this end, we are having a writ of execution re-issued and have the sheriff on standby to proceed with attachments, beginning with your client’s various bank accounts,” Sarlie said.
Last week, Sarlie said five judges presided over the matter at the SCA, following numerous appeals by the ruling party in its bid to appeal the matter by leading new evidence which was dismissed.
Subsequent to that, the marketing company proceeded to argue the merits of the matter.
Early this year, Ezulweni succeeded in obtaining a writ order against the party’s removable goods from the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg, to the value of R102 465 000 and sell them at public auction. The amount has since accumulated interest and stands at R150m.
The lawyers say they are ready to attach assets belonging to the ruling party should the ANC fail to comply with the latest judgement.
“We await proof of payment of full satisfaction of the judgement debt into our trust account, the details whereof, are enclosed, by noon today, failing which, we will, without further notice,proceed with execution,” lawyers said.
Attempts to get comment from the ANC were unsuccessful at the time of going to publication.
However, advocate Ephraim Malapane, of AMMM Incorporated acting on behalf of the ANC in the matter, said he had sent the judgment to ANC leaders and was awaiting further instructions from the party.
“I have just sent the judgment to our client for them to peruse and provide us with further instructions on what to do next.I am sure we will convene a meeting soon to chart a way forward. There’s two options … one is to satisfy the judgment amount (and the other is to) appeal further to the Concourt that would be some of the options we present to them,” Malapane said.
Saturday Star
