Pay back the money, Toni told

Former Venda king Toni Mphephu Ramabulana suffered a humiliating defeat in the Gauteng Division of the High Court on Tuesday. Not only was he told to pay back immediately the money he had received from the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank to finance three luxury vehicles, but he was also described as a dishonest person. He was instructed to pay back more than R5,58 million plus interest.

VBS Mutual Bank was placed into final liquidation by the North Gauteng High Court on 13 November 2018, and Mr Anoosh Rooplal of SNG Grant Thornton was appointed as liquidator. This followed a looting spree where the once-esteemed bank was abused to funnel hundreds of millions of rands to various people, including politicians and prominent members of society. The curator has been battling for a few years now to claw back some of these funds.

One of the people who came onto the curator’s radar was former Venda king Toni Mphephu Ramabulana. Mphephu was mentioned in the Terry Motau report in the list of high-profile people who had benefitted from loans from the mutual bank. His Dzata Trust is said to have received a R10,6 million loan from VBS, which was used to buy a luxury property in Dainfern, Johannesburg.

But the three vehicles that Mphephu had acquired via dubious “loans” from VBS were the ones that caused a major headache. The vehicles, a Range Rover 5.0 V8, BMW 760i Sedan and a Mercedes-Benz V250d, were financed and the outstanding amount due was just over R4,11 million.

Judging by the court papers, the curator tried hard to get Mphephu to service the debt or give the vehicles back, so that they could be sold to cover part of the debt. Eventually, the court was asked to give an instruction.

In his ruling that was made available on Tuesday, Judge Motsamai Makume wasted no time in dealing with Mphephu’s objections. He mentioned that in a letter dated 8 July 2021, Mphephu’s attorney stated that he would service the debt or return the vehicles. When the curator later insisted that the vehicles be returned, the excuses started mounting.

The first objection from Mphephu’s legal representative was that VBS Mutual Bank was not registered as a credit provider and thus not allowed to render credit. He also argued that the credit was extended in a reckless manner because Mphephu would clearly not have been able to afford the instalments on the debt.

Proof was provided that VBS was (and still is) registered as a credit provider. A summary of Mphephu’s income at the time was also provided, which indicated that he had received large sums of money from a variety of businesses and individuals. Several examples of such funds were filed, among others payments by Mmampilo Petroleum (R341 776), Vele Investments (R438 929) and Venmont Holdings (R145 370). He also received a salary from the government as ruler of the Vhavenda nation.

Judge Makume could not be persuaded by the argument that no proper credit vetting had been done on Mphephu before he was given the loans. “The Respondent’s version is so far-fetched and legally untenable and requires no further consideration,” he said.

Mphephu’s lawyers then tried to argue that the debt had prescribed, because it was more than three years old. The fact that Mphephu had admitted in 2021 that he owed the money and that he was fully aware of the debt made this argument moot.

In yet another attempt to get out of the debt, Mphephu’s legal team argued that a process was underway to place him in debt rescue. They had also lodged a complaint with the National Credit Regulator. The argument was raised (at a very late stage in the process) that because the matter was now being dealt with by the National Credit Regulator and the Tribunal, another court could not rule on it.

Judge Makume pointed out that no “matter pending” concerning Mphephu was before a tribunal, “…in this matter, all that the Respondent relies on is the letter to the Regulator. There is nothing pending immediately before the Tribunal or before a Debt Review Counsellor,” he said. Because the complaint brought by Mphephu falls outside the time frame allowed for such a response, he also reckoned that it should not be dealt with.

The judge was not very flattering when he described Mphephu’s conduct. “In the Replying Affidavit, the Liquidator dealt extensively in responding to the Answering Affidavit and in my view exposed the Respondent’s dishonesty at various levels. The Respondent’s evidence and version crawls with contradictions and inconsistence and has completely distorted the reality,” he said.

Apart from the more than R5,58 million that Mphephu must repay, he is also responsible for the cost of the court case.

Several attempts to contact Mphephu on Wednesday were unsuccessful. He only responded late in the morning, saying that he was still going to sit down with his lawyers to study the court documents. Only once they have a good understanding of what was said will they be able to plan the way forward.

News - Date: 02 December 2022

Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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