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Tuwani Matthews Mulaudzi was acquitted, but he has been struggling to get back his frozen assets and cash. He has asked the SIU to investigate.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Businessman Tuwani Matthews Mulaudzi has scored another significant victory after the Pretoria High Court dismissed an appeal by liquidators and trustees to keep hold on his assets and R105 million in cash, and continue to administer his estate.

Mulauzi is a free man after the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court cleared him of fraud, theft, money laundering and racketeering relating to a R48 million investment at Old Mutual in June 2022 following a seven-year trial.

However, he is on another battle with the Master of the High Court over the release of his cash and properties. Mulaudzi was declared insolvent but has since applied to set aside a sequestration order – arguing that had he not been charged and had his assets frozen he would not have found himself in this situation.

Mulaudzi has since reported this to the Special investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate the reasons the Master of the High Court officials, liquidators and trustees, whom he believes were hellbent on withholding his assets for their own benefit, were holding on and insisting on administering his estate.

The SIU is investigating whether they hid any of Mulaudzi’s cash and assets.

Mulaudzi is the executive chairperson of Luvhomba Group, which has an interest in mining, IT, consulting and retail. Before the fictitious charges, he was a prosperous entrepreneur whose worth was 100s of millions.

Last year, Mulaudzi applied in the Pretoria High Court to have the sequestration order against him set aside, but Cash Crusaders Franchising (Pty) Ltd, Oscar Jabulani Sithole, Christopher Peter van Zyl, Selby Musawonke Ntsibande and the Master of the High Court in Pretoria opposed it.

Pretoria High Court acting judge, Elspeth Khwinana, had ordered last December  that pending Mulaudzi’s application to set aside the sequestration order against him, the respondents (Cash Crusaders, Sithole, Van Zyl and Ntsibande) were interdicted and prohibited from convening and/or holding a creditor's meeting on 31 October 2023.

Judge Khwinana also ordered that the respondents were interdicted from administering Mulaudzi’s insolvent estate pending the outcome of the SIU investigation into their conduct;

“In the event the respondents have already held the creditor's meeting, the respondents are interdicted from implementing the resolutions taken therein pending the determination of the application to setting aside the sequestration order and pending the outcome of the SIU investigation,” Khwinana said.

When Khwinana dismissed the respondents’ appeal on September 2, he said: “There is no reasonable prospect that another court could come to a different conclusion.”

The Master of the High Court is expected to institute a forensic investigation.

Mulaudzi said that the trustees and liquidators had interest in his assets and cash, hence their behaviour.

“They are crooks. The SIU is investigating corruption. The more they hold on to the assets, create fictitious creditors, the more fees they write, the more money they make,” he said.

“They hid assets and cash. They are disappointed that I was acquitted. Their wish was that I would be convicted and thrown to jail. Then, they would feast on the assets without anyone fighting.”

Mulaudzi’s troubles started in 2014. Old Mutual accused him of having ceded a R48 million investment to Nedbank but demanded that it be paid to him when it matured. He had taken a R33 million investment frontiers policy with Fairbairn Capital, underwritten by Old Mutual.

The Assets Forfeiture Unit (AFU) in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) accused Mulaudzi of having ceded the policy to Nedbank in return for R37.6 million. The AFU said that Mulaudzi tried to buy back the policy from Nedbank in 2012, but the bank refused. He then used the same policy to get an overdraft facility at Absa.

The AFU said that, when the policy matured in June 2014, Mulaudzi contacted Old Mutual to request that the full value of the investment, which was R48 million, be paid to him. The money was deposited into Mulaudzi’s Absa account on 6 June 2014, the AFU said, when the cession of the policy to Nedbank had not been effected on Old Mutual’s system.