EFF surprised Gupta warrant to seize party’s property sent to media‚ instead of party

09 December 2016 - 12:22 By Ernest Mabuza
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The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) expressed surprise that the bill of costs and a writ of execution concerning its dispute with the Gupta family found its way first into the media‚ and the party had to verify whether the claims were legitimate.

The EFF was reacting to a report on News24 stating that the Guptas had obtained a warrant to seize property‚ worth about R180 000‚ at the EFF's head office in Johannesburg in order for it to be auctioned off.

A writ of execution granted to the Guptas and several of their companies by the High Court in Pretoria instructed the sheriff's office in Johannesburg to seize moveable goods at the EFF's headquarters in Braamfontein in order to cover the Guptas' legal costs relating to an earlier court battle with EFF leader Julius Malema and his party.

EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee admitted on Friday that the EFF had lost a case launched by the Guptas‚ in which they sought to stop the EFF‚ leader Jullius Malema and EFF Gauteng spokesperson Ntobeng Ntobeng from making threats of violence against the Gupta brothers‚ their companies and the employees of those companies.

In February‚ Malema had declared “war” on the Guptas and called for the family to leave South Africa‚ said that he could not guarantee the safety of journalists who work for the Gupta-owned The New Age and ANN7‚ and that they were not welcome at EFF events.

Gardee said after succeeding in their application‚ the Guptas were supposed to approach the court with a bill of costs‚ which was to be taxed by the Master of the High Court.

“Once it is taxed by the court‚ then it must be sent to us. In this instance‚ the EFF did not receive the taxed bill of costs. We did not even receive a writ of execution that they obtained from the court‚” Gardee said.

He said the writ of execution was e-mailed to the EFF by News24. EFF then took the writ to its legal advisors‚ who‚ after checking with the Gupta lawyers‚ it was established that the writ of execution was legitimate.

“Accordingly‚ we shall pay. The question to ask is: why was this given to the media and not to the EFF? Neither the tax bill nor the writ of execution was served to us.

“In due time‚ we will deal with this.”

The lawyer for the Guptas had not responded to questions at the time of publication.

- TMG Digital

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