Controversial tenderpreneur Hangwani Morgan Maumela splurged about R60m on seven luxury cars — a Rolls-Royce, two Aston Martins, a Ferrari and three Lamborghinis — with money “looted” from Tembisa Hospital.
Four of the vehicles — a Ferrari 812 Superfast supercar, a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, an Aston Martin DBS, and an Aston Martin DB11 — were found at an Mpumalanga car dealership as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) attempted to seize them this week. The cars are together worth more than R30m.
The SIU was granted an interim court order on September 29 by the Special Tribunal to attach and preserve the seven luxury vehicles — all of which are in the same shade of blue — and other assets, including a R70m three-storey residential property in the Sandton suburb of Sandhurst, from Maumela, his family trust and other associates such as family members.
The application succeeded in interdicting Maumela and his associates from selling, leasing, donating or transferring any of the assets pending the finalisation of the SIU’s probe into dodgy contracts at Tembisa Hospital worth R2.3bn.
However, the four vehicles, which investigators traced by following the money paid from the hospital contracts, were found to be registered with Omar’s Motor Den, a luxury vehicle and supercar dealership based in eMalahleni.
According to the SIU, the dealership did not want the vehicles to be attached despite the investigation having established they were acquired with money paid from alleged unlawful contracts flagged by slain whistleblower Babita Deokaran. She was killed in an apparent hit outside her Johannesburg South home in August 2021.
“The car dealership gave the SIU surety of two immovable properties without any bonds [mortgage financing] outstanding on them, valued at approximately R35m, in exchange for the curator not moving the luxury cars from the dealership,” SIU spokesperson Ngwako Motsieng said on Friday.
On Thursday morning, when the SIU swooped in both Sandton and eMalahleni, the four luxury cars were found on the dealership’s showroom floor.
The SIU will now amend the court order granted by the Special Tribunal to include the two immovable properties that have been seized as surety for the four vehicles, which the dealership has also agreed not to sell until the matter is finalised.
Omar’s Motor Den’s lawyer, Yasmin Omar, said her client was co-operating fully with the curator, even though it was not cited as a respondent in the application underpinning the order.
She said the four vehicles were owned by Omar’s Motor Den.
“The four vehicles referred to in the order from the SIU Tribunal were purchased by our client in arm’s length transactions from independent third parties,” Omar said.
The dealership had taken delivery of the vehicles, along with their spare keys and registration papers, “and paid for the vehicles in full, by EFT, at fair market value”, she said.
The allegation that the vehicles were paid for by entities ‘controlled’ by Mr Maumela and thereafter registered [in] our client’s name is factually incorrect, misleading, reckless and highly defamatory.
— Yasmin Omar, lawyer
“We have provided a copy of all the documents supporting our client’s explanation to the curator to demonstrate our client was acting in good faith, and that at all material times it acted lawfully.”
Omar accused the SIU of filing affidavits with “grave inaccuracies” with the Special Tribunal.
“The allegation that the vehicles were paid for by entities ‘controlled’ by Mr Maumela and thereafter registered [in] our client’s name is factually incorrect, misleading, reckless and highly defamatory,” she said.
The SIU sought to attach property worth about R900m from Maumela, but assets worth only R133.5m were seized this week.
Motsieng described the interim order as “one of the most comprehensive asset preservation orders in recent times [that] is aimed at preventing the dissipation of assets allegedly acquired through unlawful means”.
The SIU will now move to other locations across the country where Maumela, 43, and his associates, including his mother and a family trust, own assets.
The four luxury vehicles worth R30m were apparently being used by Maumela and his associates, though they were kept at the dealership.
Maumela’s three-storey Sandhurst mansion was raided on Thursday. Three more luxury vehicles — a Lamborghini Urus SUV (worth R5.3m), a Lamborghini Aventador (R10.4m), and a Lamborghini Huracán STO (R9.5m) — were found there.
The three vehicles appeared almost brand-new and had no registration plates. The Urus SUV had less than 600km on the clock.
The Sandhurst compound is surrounded by a 4m-high wall, fitted with CCTV cameras, and also has a fully equipped gym. It is situated on Oxford Avenue, one of Johannesburg’s most expensive addresses.
The property includes a car wash, a beauty salon and about 10 bedrooms, all of which are en suite. Each bedroom is fitted with a 100-inch television monitor, and each bathroom has a TV.
Two large removal trucks were loaded with furniture before an agreement was reached between the SIU and Maumela’s lawyers that no further furniture would be seized from the house.
An SIU interim report on allegations of corruption, fraud and maladministration linked to supply chain management processes at Tembisa Hospital released last month revealed that more than R2bn was looted between 2018 and 2022.
The SIU traced links between winning and losing bidders through money transfers, shared directorships and family connections. More than R1m has so far been identified as payments made directly or indirectly from successful bidders to supposedly unsuccessful competitors.
The report revealed that six hospital managers and their relatives received payments linked to syndicates worth more than R110m.
An assistant nurse is under investigation for receiving R7.3m, five clerks are linked to payments exceeding R140m, and a medical staff member received R750,000.
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