Habana snr 'dummies' landlord

Bernie Habana seems to be as elusive to creditors as his son, ball in hand, on a rugby field.

Habana snr has allegedly not paid his rent for months and is now refusing to leave the R2.4-million house he is occupying in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, according to his landlord, Thorsten Weiss.

Weiss is taking the father of the Springboks' top try scorer to the Gauteng Rental Housing Tribunal this week to get an eviction order.

"I have tenants that want to move in but I can't get him out," the frustrated Weiss said.

He claimed that Habana owed him in excess of R55000.

Repeated attempts to get comment from Habana failed.

Weiss showed The Times a "proof of payment" SMS sent by Habana in September.

According to Weiss, the money did not appear in his account and Habana said he would "look into the missing payment".

"A week later, Habana came to my office with another proof of payment, this one for R30000, allegedly paid by his son, Bryan, from the UAE. This was another self-created proof of payment because that money also never materialised," said Weiss.

The Times visited the double-storey house in a complex in an upmarket part of Fourways yesterday.

Despite an allegedly strained relationship between father and son, Habana snr was wearing a green golf shirt with "SA Rugby" on it.

When asked if he were going to be evicted, he said: "No I am not ... I am still here."

After inquiring how The Times had gained access to the secure estate he got into his Honda Accord car and sped off.

"Bernie will never move out without an eviction order. He'll squat there for free as long as possible," said Weiss.

Another legal wrangle with Habana which began in 2011 over more than R1-million is still going on, said Cape Town lawyer Lawrence Whittaker yesterday.

He said the allegation of fake proofs of payment sounded "all too familiar".

Whittaker's client is Nicola Gross, who lent money to Habana four years ago and is still trying to recover about R2-million.

One of Habana's neighbours in Fourways said he had kept a sheep in an alley next to the house for about five days until the SPCA confiscated it. Habana was said to have maintained that the sheep was part of a lobola payment.