A 2015 Bentley Continental GT sold for nearly R3.7 million and previously owned by a suspect in the R255m asbestos corruption case is now subject of a fierce legal battle between a Sandton luxury vehicle dealership and a financial institution.
The vehicle was sold to businessman Sello Joseph Radebe, accused number seven in the case and is charged alongside 17 individuals and companies including former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, his erstwhile personal assistant Moroadi Cholota and controversial businessman Edwin Sodi, among others, in the lucrative contract to replace asbestos roofs in houses across the Free State province.
Grandeur Auto, which is described as Sandton’s trusted luxury and sports car dealership, bought the Bentley for R1.6m.
This was after Radebe defaulted in payment of the monthly installments, with the arrears accumulating to about R180,000 by March 2020, which meant the full outstanding debt under the installment sale agreement was just over R2.48m.
Radebe bought the vehicle, financed by Wesbank, in August 2015 for R3,667,434.74.
It is around this time that Radebe and some of his co-accused were arrested by the Hawks in relation to the Free State asbestos fraud, corruption and money laundering scandal and one of his companies, Mastertrade 232, was alleged to have received nearly R36.5m of the proceeds of fraudulent criminal activity.
Radebe and his co-accused are currently out on bail and their criminal trial is pending in the high court in Bloemfontein.
Mastertrade 232, represented by Radebe, is listed as accused number eight.
Following the arrests, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) obtained a Free State High Court order securing and seizing the vehicle and for the appointment of a curator bonis to take its possession and preserve it pending the outcome of the criminal trial and asset confiscation proceedings.
Throughout the separate court proceedings, Wesbank struggled to locate the Bentley and then liaised with the Hawks, who informed the financial institution that the NPA had an order restraining and seizing the vehicle.
In November 2024, the sheriff, acting on the curator bonis’ instructions and with the assistance of the Hawks and the SA Police Service, seized and attached the vehicle at Grandeur Auto’s address and handed it over to a legal and collection services company on Wesbank’s behalf.
In court, Grandeur Auto said the court order against Radebe authorising the repossession of the vehicle was obtained by Wesbank in May 2021 but it allowed it to be in the public domain until November 2024 with one of the consequences being that the dealership purchased the Bentley for R1.6m.
The dealership insisted that Wesbank was not the owner of the vehicle and that it had acquired its ownership and therefore entitled to claim it from the bank.
“In any event, the disposition of the vehicle by the respondent (Wesbank) was unlawful and even if the applicant (Grandeur Auto) was not the owner, which it is asserted that it is, it has been spoliated (wrongfully deprived of property) of the vehicle.
“The cause of action is based both on a rei vindicatio (restoration of the property to the owner) on the basis that the applicant is the owner of the vehicle. It is also based on a spoliation by virtue of the invalid warrant of execution having been executed and the respondent obtaining the vehicle that way,” argued Grandeur Auto.
Judge Mandlenkosi Motha dismissed Grandeur Auto’s bid seeking the return of the Bentley.
“In my view, the application should be dismissed. Although Grandeur Auto is skating on thin ice, I am not inclined to mark my disapproval of the applicant’s conduct by imposing attorney and client costs,” the judge ruled last Wednesday, June 10.
Judge Motha continued: “Wesbank lost ownership through negligence, so the argument went. This submission was at odds with the junior counsel’s concession that ownership was contested. The absence of ownership is fatal to any application for rei vindicatio.”
Grandeur Auto’s legal representatives, Larry Marks Attorneys, have indicated that an application for leave to appeal Judge Motha’s judgment has already been filed.
