Times Of Swaziland: BRING E25M, OWN WOODLANDS CENTRE

BRING E25M, OWN WOODLANDS CENTRE
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BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE on 21/11/2020 23:23:00


mfanukhona@times.co.sz
EZULWINI – Woodlands Conference Centre, which hosted  the Miss Eswatini Beauty
Pageant in 2011 and 2014, will now be sold for E25 million.
Initially, the reserve price for the spacious centre or hall and other
facilities such as a restaurant building, shop complex, chalets, store rooms and
parking bay was fixed at E32.2 million.
It effectively means, therefore, that the reserve price has since been reduced
by E7.2 million. It could not be immediately ascertained why the reserve price
has gone down from the previous one.
However, the issued Writ of Execution states that the property, which is owned
by a company under the directorship of well known businesswoman and former
Senator Thandi Maziya, will be auctioned in public outside the High Court of
Eswatini on December 11, 2020. The activity will start at 11am.
portion
The property is owned by the Parklands Group (Pty) Ltd. It is situated on
Portion 158 (a portion of 147) of Farm No.50. It is located adjacent to the
Eswatini Revenue Authority Head Office and not very far from the International
Convention Centre and Five Star Hotel which are under construction.
The Registrar of the High Court stated in a Gazette that conditions of sale are
available for inspection at the office of the Sheriff in the High Court Building
in Mbabane.
The property measures 1, 3194 hectares. The public auction emanates from a court
battle between Swaziland (Eswatini) Development and Savings Bank and The
Parklands Group (Pty) Ltd, which is cited as the first respondent, while Thandi
Maziya is the second respondent.
According to a previous notice of sale (writ of attachment issued by the High
Court of Eswatini, the public auction for the property was slated for July 17,
2020.
It was also going to be held outside the High Court building at the same time
(11am.)
Actually, the reserve price for the property was E32 290 000.
A reserve price is a minimum price a seller is willing to accept from a buyer.
The company that runs the facility is understood to be indebted to the bank for
a sum amounting to E2 333 051.16. According to the law, if the property is
finally bought for E25 million or above, the creditor will take the amount of
money equivalent to the outstanding loan balance and give the difference to the
debtor.
Say, a bidder purchases the property for E25 million, the difference is E22 666
949.00. This is correct if the initial reports that the company owed E2 333
051.16 held water.
It could not be ascertained if administrative costs are charged on the debtor or
creditor’s account.
It must be mentioned though that there was a time when Eswatini Bank (Swaziland
Development and Savings Bank) threatened to attach portion 52 of Farm Tubungu
No.300 in Manzini for a reserve price of E1.6 million. That was in July 2018
when the bank alleged to have been owed a sum of E24 million by the same
company, and also placed the same facility (Woodlands) for auctioning.
In August 2018, representing her company, Maziya moved an application in court
seeking to stop the intended sale of her company’s property for E47 million
just to recover a debt of slightly over E2 million.
properties
The properties were still Portion 158 of Portion 147 Farm No.50 situated in
Ezulwini, measuring 1.3 hectares and Portion 52 of Farm Tubungu No.300 which is
9 999 square metres.
The Ezulwini property, according to Maziya, was valued at E43 031 172 while the
one in Tubungu was worth E4 400 000.
The reserve price, as it appeared in the notice of sale, was E20 million in
respect of Portion 158 of Farm 50 and that of the Tubungu property was E1 600
000.
The auction was temporarily stopped pending the determination of the urgent
application that Maziya filed at the High Court. Maziya, who is the director of
The Parklands Group (Pty) Ltd, sought an order declaring the notice of sale null
and void.
She had also wanted the court to set aside the writ of attachment and notice of
sale. Maziya had argued that the notice culminated from the issuance of an order
on June 25, 2014, compelling her company to pay the bank a sum of E2 333 051.16.
Her company was represented by Dumisa Khumalo of Howe Masuku Nsibande Attorneys.
Maziya said the order was made after the bank had issued summons demanding
payment of a sum of E3 736 979.32, which it then sought to recover through the
auction.
Maziya argued that this was not the amount which the court ordered her or her
company to pay the bank but the sum of E2 333 051.16.
“The respondent (Eswatini Bank) has proceeded, to my surprise to endorse the
writ, notice of attachment and notice of sale for a judgment it did not obtain
in the aforesaid court process. The amount they seek to recover is the amount of
E3 736 979.32, instead of that ordered by the court,” Maziya submitted.
The matter has been dragging in court until now that a writ of execution has
been issued. Eswatini Bank was represented by prominent attorneys, S.V. Mdladla
and Associates.
It remains to be seen if the public auction slated for the Friday of December
11, 2020 will materialise this time around. Ex-Senator Maziya is not the only
one to face the wrath of the Eswatini Bank.
In 1999, Eswatini Bank instituted court proceedings against the late land baron
and sugar tycoon Dumisa Dlamini whose properties were attached and sold upon
default of debts incurred by his six companies.
After the man who used to host the first black South African President, Nelson
Mandela, in his hotels in Mpumalanga, had fallen from riches and being unable to
service his financial commitments, properties worth many millions of Emalangeni
and Rands, both in Eswatini and South Africa, were repossessed by his creditors.
His insolvent estate was placed under sequestration, in both countries, and
various former assets were sold on auctions.
Thought to be owing around E60 million, Dlamini’s companies that attracted
judgments were Swazi Inn (Pry) Ltd which reportedly owed El 278 510.21; Dumisa
Sugar Corporation (Pty) Ltd at E42 228 399.11; The New George Hotel (Pty) Ltd at
E5 186 813.79; Mackay Investments (Pty) Ltd (Smokey Mountain Village) at E766
263.78; Uncle Charlie Hotel (Pty) Ltd (Velebantfu Hotel) at E369 754.79; and the
sixth company, The Property Company (Pty) Ltd (Mgenule Hotel) at E748 270.50. In
each case, costs and interest was also ordered.
Dlamini was one of the celebrated indigenous businesspeople in Eswatini who was
so powerful that he would convene a press conference to slam a chief justice.