Thula Sindi’s posh store closes down
Legal battle with partner leads to ‘temporary’ closure
Thula Sindi’s store at The Zone in Rosebank, Johannesburg, has been “temporarily” shut.
The top-shelf fashion designer is embroiled in an ugly legal battle that has seen his swanky store closed for almost two weeks.
It was initially thought it was due to “unpaid rent”, but management at The Zone confirmed this was not the case.
The designer, who has become a well-known name in fashion circles in South Africa, told Sowetan that the closure was temporary and said there was a legal battle between himself and a prospective business partner.
His team sent out a statement: “Upon further perusal of the prospective business partner’s proposition, Mr Sindi’s
We’ll sort it out in court, all else is going well
lawyers advised him not to proceed with the agreement, as there were some clauses that were glaringly in bad faith as well as incongruent with Mr Sindi’s business ethos.”
Sindi said the matter was due to be heard in court at the end of the month and that he was confident the store would reopen soon.
“This has been going on for two years and it’s been a malicious attack. We will sort it out in court but everything else is going well. I have a show on Thursday at Fashion Week and I’m excited. Everybody is happy and it will be back to business soon.”
He dismissed speculation that there was an issue over his rent and corroborated what management had said that “everything was up to date”.
Sindi’s store was opened with much fanfare in 2015 with a star-studded bash that included his celebrity clients Basetsana Kumalo and Terry Pheto.