Shauwn Mpisane cries foul following 'theft' during home raid

17 March 2019 - 00:00 By TANIA BROUGHTON and BONGANI MTHETHWA

Louis Vuitton handbags, 10 top-end watches, a case of Dom Perignon, Christian Louboutin and Gucci shoes and a bottle of Ace of Spades champagne worth at least R5,000.
These are just some of the items allegedly stolen from the plush Durban home of controversial businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane during a raid - with the tenderpreneur blaming the theft on curator Cloete Murray, acting on behalf of the South African Revenue Service (Sars), and unknown people.
Mpisane, who is in a legal battle over an outstanding tax bill amounting to millions of rands, opened a case against Murray at the Durban North police station. SAPS spokesperson Capt Nqobile Gwala confirmed that a case was under investigation.
Mpisane's lawyer gave the Sunday Times an unsigned version of the business woman's affidavit to police. In it, she accuses Murray and others of "unlawfully" entering her La Lucia mansion without her consent and "without the sanction of a court of law" on March 4.
She said Murray only left after he was advised by her lawyer that the court order he purported to execute had been suspended pending her application to appeal. Murray returned two days later "with the purpose to trespass and intimidate me".
"He was in the company of several people, most of whom were armed," said Mpisane. The men "threw their weight around". One allegedly was boss of a security company.
"We were forced to go to court to interdict their unlawful behaviour and successfully obtained a court order interdicting them from persisting with their unlawful conduct of trespassing and intimidation of myself, my son and my staff," she wrote.
Mpisane was referring to her urgent application on Wednesday in the Durban high court, where judge Gregory Kruger granted an order for Murray to leave the property.
Mpisane also claimed two other people entered her premises later on Wednesday afternoon and removed locks without her permission.
After numerous people had gone through her house, she noticed that several items had gone missing. These included:
Ten watches including Rolex, Hublot, Franck Muller and AP makes;
Five Gucci bags, three Louis Vuitton bags, two Hermes bags and one Louis Vuitton luggage bag;
One bottle of Ace of Spades and one case of Dom Perignon; and
Thirty pairs of school shoes, two pairs of Gucci sneakers and one pair of Christian Louboutin loafers.
Murray and Sars officials swooped again on Mpisane's home on Friday as part of the ongoing dispute over what her Zikhulise Group owe the taxman. Sars made two successful court applications in 2016 in terms of which the assets were to be preserved to cover an alleged debt of R141m.
A source with direct knowledge of the proceedings claimed Mpisane had made an offer to pay R10m towards her debt to Sars. Murray asked the Sunday Times to send him questions on Friday but did not respond...

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