Former president Nelson Mandela's grandson Zondwa Mandela , will not celebrate his 30th birthday next week by cruising in his Mercedes-Benz. Neither will he be paying for a big birthday bash with his Investec credit cards.
A bank has hauled Zindzi Mandela's eldest son to court for failing to pay the monthly instalments on a R700000 car loan and nearly R20000 on his credit card account.
The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday postponed the case to give Zondwa time to file his overdue answering affidavits.
He was hit with an order to pay wasted costs.
The court papers reveal that Mandela has stopped paying the monthly instalment of R14618 for the car.
The bank asked the court to order Mandela, who is also known by one of his middle names, "Gaddafi", to return the credit cards and pay the debt with interest. It is also demanding payment of almost R448247, with interest, for the luxury black S320 CDI car, at a daily interest rate of 8.25% from May.
The bank instituted proceedings against Mandela in June 2011 and in October of that year obtained a court order for the return of the car and all the credit cards it had issued to him.
But, though he gave the address of one of his grandfather's houses in Houghton for the delivery of the court notices, Mandela, the sheriff's office claimed, could not be traced.
The bank eventually hired a private investigator and asked the police for help in tracking him down and recovering the car.
The bank said the car was "eventually sold" in April for R320000, bringing his debt on the car to R448247 with interest.
Toni Steinberg, spokesman for Investec's investor relations division, said the bank would continue to demand payment of the outstanding balance.
- Mandela made headlines as a business partner of President Jacob Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma. He and Khulubuse are facing criminal charges.
