Lesedi Local Municipality Mayor Lerato Maloka and Acting Municipal Manager Isaac Rampedi are to be held in contempt of court after they failed to hand over the historic AG Visser house to its rightful owners.
According to Igno Gouws of Webber Wentzel Attorneys, the papers to initiate this process have been submitted but the sheriff of the court has not been to get a hold of Maloka and Rampedi to serve the same papers on them.
The decision to take action comes after the Pretoria High Court ruled on October 18, 2016 that the AG Visser House had to be returned to Helderwaters (Pty) Ltd, a successor in title to the Rembrandt Group.
The court found that LLM had failed to live up to the original lease agreement it had with Helderwaters (Pty) Ltd.
LLM blatantly ignored the ruling and instead proposed at a special council meeting on March 10 that more funds had to be approved to oppose the High Court Ruling through an appeal.
This after the High Court stipulated that LLM had until November 6, 2016 to appeal its ruling.
The request for more funds and Council approval for an appeal application was later withdrawn.
To date nearly R400 000 of the ratepayers’ money had been spent on legal fees in this matter.
Promises made
As for the reason for the twilight request to fight the High Court’s decision, HERAUT has been reliably informed that certain promises with regards to the future of the AG Visser House and other historic landmarks were made to a Johannesburg based Architecture and Design company Tecino.
LLM had originally tried to lease these historic properties to Tecino on a leasehold of 66 years, but this was declared illegal by the National Treasury.
Meanwhile Gouws indicated that while the Sheriff was trying to track down Maloka and Rampedi, his company had requested LLM to issue a clearance certificate so that the title deeds of the property could be transferred back to its rightful owners.
LLM has not responded to this request and it has been established in recent weeks that 90% of the estate agents in Heidelberg are also struggling to have these clearance certificates issued.
A short and sweet explanation for the constant delays is – poor administrative skills.
This perpetual slackness of LLM is said to be steadily driving away potential investors and the result for the man on the street is that growth in the employment market is unlikely to improve.
