Janse van Rensburg to face urgent application for contempt of court
Malalane attorney Zietta Janse van Rensburg has had a urgent application lodged against her recently by the Legal Practice Council. This is just one matter in a long line of legal cases in which she is implicated.
The Legal Practice Council (LPC) has confirmed that they have lodged an urgent application for contempt in the High Court against Zietta Janse van Rensburg after her appearance in a court case in front of Judge Brian Mashile on May 22, 2024 – while her law licence was suspended.
The papers were issued last week and the LPC is awaiting a hearing date.
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More legal action taken:
Apart from the above legal action, Lowvelder is aware of various criminal charges laid against Janse van Rensburg.
• FSB Mining Company has laid charges against her after a mining deal had gone sour. The case is being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit.
• Two separate criminal cases are being investigated related to a R14m property transaction. Almost five years after a businessman had paid R14.4m for a property to build a new store, he is out of pocket and has no legitimate documents to prove ownership of the erf he bought.
• Allan and Joy Jones’s retirement turned into a nightmare when Janse van Rensburg allegedly convinced them to ‘invest’ in an ethanol project. After the sale of their popular pub, Duck & Dive, in June 2022, she persuaded the couple to invest their life’s savings in the project, which never materialised. The deal has left the Joneses in a dire financial situation and they have laid criminal charges against Janse van Rensburg.
• In the Joneses’ proposed deal, the letterhead of Mjejane Trust was falsified and presented to the couple to create a sense of legitimacy in the project. The document presented was ‘signed’ by Pieter Zeelie, who denied ever signing it, nor having any knowledge of the ethanol project. Zeelie has laid a criminal charge against Janse van Rensburg.
• Janse van Rensburg will soon appear in the Tonga Magistrate’s Court on a charge related to the falsification of a signature on a document.
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Civil action against Janse van Rensburg:
• Multiple complaints relating to Stonecrete Property Investments formed part of the LPC judgment. Stonecrete was owned by the Cronjé family.
Janse van Rensburg allegedly misrepresented that she had a mandate from Stonecrete to enter into a commission advance discounting agreement with Noordhoek-based Partnership Acceptances, one of the complainants.
In essence, a loan of R520 000 was taken out, subject to repayment upon registration, but was never repaid.
Another complaint relating to the same property was instituted by a Pretoria law firm.
From the proceeds of an immovable property transaction, Janse van Rensburg should have paid the outstanding R320 000 on Stonecrete’s Standard Bank mortgage account, but allegedly failed to do so.
She had, however, furnished the Pretoria bond attorney with documents purporting to be proof of payment, which, according to court papers, turned out not to be authentic.
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On Friday May 31, judgment was granted against Janse van Rensburg and her practice, Van Rensburg Inc, to pay R1.6m with interest, a tempore morae on the date of registration of immovable property to the date of final payment. Punitive costs on an attorney and client scale were also awarded.
* ‘A tempore morae’ is a Latin phrase denoting the date on which an obligation to pay becomes due and when interest may be charged when payment is not made timeously.
