The future of one of SA’s oldest wine estates hangs in the balance as a bank squeezes it for millions of rand in unpaid debt.
Nedbank has obtained an order in Cape Town high court declaring Goede Hoop Wine Estate in Stellenbosch “specially executable” to recoup more than R8.5m. The farm has been in the Bestbier family’s hands since 1929.
Pieter Bestbier, the farm’s third-generation winemaker, is listed as the first respondent in the litigation. According to court papers, the Goede Hoop Trust, which owns the farm, received a substantial amount of money from the bank in the form of “an overdraft facility and loans, which were secured by way of nine mortgage bonds registered over the farm”.
When it failed to repay the money, Nedbank instituted legal action against Bestbier and the trust. A settlement was reached last year, but when the trust failed to honour it, the bank launched an application for default judgment.
The law requires creditors to be considerate if the “property declared executable” is the debtor’s primary home. But Nedbank said “the property is a commercial wine farm which belongs to the trust”.
“[Nedbank] further contends that the municipal valuation of the farm is approximately R21m and on [the trust’s] version, the market value thereof is about R40m under normal marketing conditions; and worth R35m on a ‘fire sale’. It is also apparent that the trust owns movable equipment, which comprises machinery and stock in trade, amounting to approximately R5m,” the judgment said.
But the Bestbiers said the farm was their primary home. Pieter and his wife, Hanli, “have resided in the main house since 1992 and there are 12 smaller cottages where the farm’s permanent workers and their families reside, many of whom have been working and living on the farm for nearly as long as” the family.
Nedbank said the difference between the reserve price of R21m and the valuation of up to R40m meant there would be more than enough money for the Bestbiers to buy a new home.
Judge Dèidre Kusevitsky granted Nedbank the default judgment last month. Last week, attorney Anel Bestbier told Sunday Times Daily the family would file an application for leave to appeal it this week.
“While this matter is still sub judice, we do not intend to comment on the merits thereof, save to state that the application raises an important constitutional issue relating to the rights of farmworkers who reside on farms owned by trusts where credit providers seek orders declaring farms executable,” she said.
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