R9.5m Ferrari tied to Thembisa Hospital scandal cleared for sale after court bid fails

A Ferrari SF90 Stradale worth R9.5 million, seized as part of the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) probe into the alleged R2 billion Thembisa Hospital looting scandal, is set to be sold after a Pretoria High Court judge threw out an urgent bid to block the sale.

The supercar has been linked to Hangwani Maumela, a central figure in the SIU’s investigation into corruption at the Gauteng hospital. A family trust connected to Maumela had tried to stop a court-appointed curator from finalising the sale of the vehicle, arguing that an appeal against an earlier tribunal order automatically put the sale on hold.

Acting Judge SG Maritz disagreed, ruling last Friday that the order allowing the sale was interim in nature and dealt only with how the preserved asset should be managed while litigation continues. On that basis, he found the appeal did not suspend the sale.

Conflicting claims over ownership

At the heart of the trust’s failed application was a tangle of contradictory claims about who actually owns the high-performance Ferrari. The judgment noted at least five different versions of ownership presented across various court papers and investigations.

• The trust claimed in tribunal papers that it owned the vehicle.
• Maumela separately claimed the SIU had confirmed, under oath, that he was the owner.
• Drive Time Auto CC was listed as the registered owner at the time the car was frozen.
• The Maumela camp later alleged Drive Time had loaned the trust R7.8 million against the vehicle — a claim Drive Time repeatedly denied.
• A separate entity, More Concerts (Pty) Ltd, was shown via bank records to have paid a R11.1 million balance on the car to dealership Scuderia South Africa.

Adding to the confusion, the curator’s legal team noted that Maumela had allegedly told police the transfer of the Ferrari into the trust’s name was fraudulent — a claim the trust did not dispute in its papers.

“Its deponent attributed ownership to the trust and to himself, told the police that the trust’s registration was fraudulent, told the tribunal that the vehicle was registered in another’s name as security, and suggested that yet another entity paid the price,” Judge Maritz said in his ruling, noting that no attempt had been made to reconcile the conflicting accounts.

Costs of keeping a supercar in storage

The Ferrari is one of several luxury vehicles preserved under a Special Tribunal order granted in September last year as part of the broader asset-freezing effort linked to the Thembisa Hospital matter.

In August, the tribunal authorised curator Jacobus Gideon Louw van Wyk to sell the car for no less than R9.5 million, with proceeds to be held in an interest-bearing trust account pending the outcome of the main case. Van Wyk argued that ongoing insurance, storage and maintenance costs were steadily eating into the asset’s value — with insurance and storage estimated at roughly R100,000 a year and R5,000 a month respectively, plus a further R408,000 required just to reinstate the vehicle’s warranty.

The Maumela side opposed the sale, arguing instead that the Ferrari would only appreciate in value if kept. Van Wyk proceeded to sell the car to Scuderia South Africa for R9.6 million on 18 August, but paused the transaction a day later once the trust filed its appeal.

Court finds no grounds for delay

Judge Maritz ultimately found that the trust’s appeal had no reasonable prospect of success and that it would suffer no lasting harm from the sale proceeding, since the money would simply sit earning interest until the case is resolved.

“Nor are there exceptional circumstances,” he said. “Selling a valuable, preserved asset pending an appeal is not out of the ordinary.”

Van Wyk had agreed to delay the sale until 4pm on Wednesday but declined to extend that deadline further. The trustees of the MHR Maumela Family Trust were ordered to cover the legal costs of the application, though the judge declined the curator’s request for punitive costs or for the trustees to be held personally liable.

In a statement issued on Monday, the SIU welcomed the ruling as a boost for its recovery efforts. “This judgment is a significant affirmation of the preservation and civil recovery mechanisms available to the SIU through the Special Tribunal to prevent the dissipation of assets that are the subject of corruption investigations and related civil proceedings,” the unit said, adding that it remains committed to recovering state losses and had referred evidence of possible criminal conduct to the National Prosecuting Authority.

Source: R9.5m Ferrari linked to Hangwani Maumela could be sold after court ruling — IOL