The mansion of businessman and former Umkhonto we Sizwe operative Mzi Khumalo is being auctioned off after he failed to pay over R17 million he owed RMB Private Bank.
Khumalo, who spent a decade on Robben Island, will lose his five bedroom home in Zimbali, north of Durban, and an unfinished hotel he tried to build with his former business partners, Laurusco Developments, according to the Sunday Independent.
The newspaper reported that Khumalo secured the loans through his family trust.
Among the trustees were his wife Makhosazana, asset manager Charles Graham, and Constitutional Court Justice Raymond Zondo, according to court papers. Zondo resigned as a trustee more than three years ago. Khumalo took out the bonds between 1998 and 2004.
RMB Private Bank wrote to the trustees in March 2011, informing them they were in arrears of nearly R2.9m, and gave them seven days to pay.
The bank said in court that the trustees failed to respond to the letter. Khumalo accepted liability including interest, damages, taxes, costs and whatever charges the trustees owed. The trustees had a limited liability of R6.5m.
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