Liesl Valloo and her NPO, No More Victims have plunged themselves into hot water after being served court papers for failure to pay back a loan to 98-year-old Adelaide Grewe.
This comes after Valloo and her NPO borrowed R 50 000 from the Eldorado Park pensioner in November 2022 and promised to pay it back on December 15 of the same year.
Grewe who will be turning 99 years old in May wishes to see justice being done before she leaves this earth.
When Valloo borrowed the money, Grewe was staying in one of her safe houses in Eldorado Park where she was being cared for.
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To complete the transaction, they visited the Eldorado Park Police Station where Valloo signed a sworn affidavit promising to pay back the money on December 15, 2022.
It’s been over a year now and the money has not been paid and Grewe ha spent even more money on legal fees trying to solve this matter.
“Seeing that I’m too old, I think she is waiting for me to die so that she can end up not paying back my money,” says an emotional Grewe.
“I have struggled a lot in this life. I was working for R70 a month and this is the money I had saved so that I can be able to go to hospital if I get sick since I’m too old.”
Grewe worked for child welfare and other charity initiatives in Eldorado Park throughout her life and raised seven children on her own after her husband left her.
The R50 000 she borrowed Valloo and No More Victims was what she had saved from the sale of her house in Klipspruit West.
“When I sold my house, I gave my children all the money and I only kept R100 000 for myself. From that R100 000, I took R40 000 and donated to charity through the church so that orphaned children can get an education,” explained Grewe.
She was only left with R60 000 which she saved in a fixed deposit account at Nedbank and now R50 000 of it is gone.
The whole ordeal has taken a toll on Grewe emotionally and financially and she has placed all her hopes on the justice system as the matter is now before the Protea Magistrate’s Court where it was due to be heard this week.
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“Yes I get my pension every month but it’s not enough because even now I still owe the lawyers R2000. I’m currently staying with my nephew and I’m dependent on him financially as well.”
Grewe claims to have not spoken to Valloo after she decided to take the legal route to solve the matter.
She also accuses Valloo of employing delaying tactics by submitting wrong financial records in court to make it appear as if her NPO’s and personal accounts had no money.
“The fact that she is defending herself in court and she can even afford to pay a lawyer gives me the impression that she doesn’t want to pay back my money,” said an angry Grewe.
“If she can pay a lawyer, she can afford to pay me even R2000 a month. I feel healthy now but since I’m old, I can die at any time.”
Valloo agreed that she did borrow the R50 000 for her cash-strapped NOP but rubbished claims that she is refusing to pay it back.
“She borrowed us the money in good faith as the NPO but unfortunately we couldn’t get the funding we were expecting,” said Valloo.
“Government did not communicate with us on time in terms of our funding and everything just stopped.
“She is not the only person we owe; we are also in debt for bread. Things have been very difficult to a point where we can’t even afford to pay for bread to feed people at the safe houses.”
Valloo went on to say she has made a commitment to pay back the money in instalments of R2000 a month to Grewe until the debt is settled.
“In fact, the first instalment of R2000 was paid on March 7 and I plan to stick to that commitment until we get our funding from the Department of Social Development. It was not my intention to not pay back the money, I’m not a thief and I did not have bad intentions when I borrowed the money,” concluded Valloo.
She also promised to share proof of payment of the first R2000 instalment with the publication.
