Johannesburg - Businessman Louis Liebenberg complained that he was being targeted for his association with former president Jacob Zuma after the sheriff of the court raided his business premises yesterday in Rhodesfield, Kempton Park, during an alleged unprocedural liquidation process.
Liebenberg said an interim liquidation order that had provisionally been granted, only for final execution in September, for one of his companies, Tariomix, was illegally executed on Tuesday morning to try to attach office furniture and computers belonging to a totally different company that was not under threat of liquidation at all.
He has called on the government to protect him against relentless attacks from unruly law-enforcement agencies, the media and bogus liquidators who, without following proper processes, attached assets belonging to the wrong entity.
Liebenberg, who has been described as Zuma’s benefactor after publicly endorsing him, has requested government intervention as he feels he is being personally attacked as a result of his recent affiliation with the former head of state.
Last year, Liebenberg paid a portion of Zuma’s legal fees and the private prosecution of journalists Karyn Maughan and Billy Downer. He even donated a bull to the former ANC leader when he visited him at his Nkandla homestead.
He said since this act of sympathy towards Zuma, he had been singled out for personal and business attacks, which have affected most of his businesses, including the much-publicised diamond businesses in the Northern Cape.
On Tuesday, members of his staff were left stranded after the liquidators attached some of the assets, including furniture and technological equipment belonging to one of his businesses.
Supporters and friends of Liebenberg gathered at his offices and expressed their outrage at the alleged abuse and misapplication of the law.
They parked their vehicles in front of the gates to the premises, blocking the staff of the sheriff from entering the property. Speaking to The Star, Liebenberg claimed that after coming out in support of the former head of state, which he did as someone helping a former leader in need, he has become a target of both the media and liquidators.
He said his support of Zuma had cost him and more than 1 000 of his employees their livelihoods, and should it continue, it would put paid to the rainbow nation he sought to build through his business endeavours. “Ever since I have been supporting Jacob Zuma, there has been massive discrimination against me and my companies. I have lost about R20 million a day in turnover since I started supporting Zuma,” he said.
Liebenberg said one of his companies in Kempton Park had suffered immensely after its assets were attached against the liabilities of another company that was on provisional liquidation, adding that no proper processes were followed in this liquidation.
“The sheriff came in this morning and picked up 40 people working there and the furniture and everything belonging to one of the business. These assets do not belong to Tariomix, the company in provisional liquidation,” he said.
A business associate of Liebenberg, who did not want to be identified for fear of victimisation, said what he saw was tragic.
“We are dealing here with people who are abusing their powers. They have come here with an inappropriate order of attachment, as the business that was placed under provisional liquidation is supposed to be sequestrated only in September and not now. It is clear that they were here to try to deal with him because of his association with former president Zuma,” the associate said.
The attachment of assets comes a month after the Mahikeng High Court ordered that a curator be appointed by the SA Revenue Service to oversee Liebenberg’s company, Tariomix. This comes after the court dismissed a bid by Tariomix to overturn its provisional liquidation.
Carl Niehaus, African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance leader, who also came to the scene to support Liebenberg, said targeting and victimisation were indications of how far the legal system had been captured by the Ramaphosa regime.
The liquidators denied not following proper procedures yesterday. “We have reason to believe the assets attached belong to the same business that is being liquidated. We requested that Liebenberg provide us with proof, but he failed to do so,” lawyer for the liquidators, Susan Strijdom, said.
The Star