Elderly mom died as sibling spat over money raged around her
● Three siblings skirmished around the deathbed of their nonagenarian mother in an acrimonious battle over millions of rands.
And a year after Norma Rieger’s death, East London businessman Garry Rieger and his sister, Renae Kriedemann, are still at each other’s throats over a lucrative business.
The row erupted when Kriedemann, 61, accused Garry Rieger, 67, and their brother, Rowan, of enriching themselves from the company One Vision. It managed a portion of an East London farm once owned by the siblings’ father and uncle. The siblings acquired 50% of the farm after their uncle died and subdivided it into 136 upmarket residential plots, most of which have been sold.
Their mother Norma died in January last year. As familial relations deteriorated, Kriedemann launched legal action in the high court in East London last year for the winding up of the company.
In court papers she said she had bought their mother presents but her brother had returned them and instructed Norma’s carers to block her visits.
According to Kriedemann, the brothers had undertaken not to abuse her “emotionally or other- wise, including not to do so at Norma’s funeral” in a settlement they reached when their relationship was on a downward spiral.
Judge Judith Roberson said: “However, according to Renae, Garry continued with his abuse. He arranged for a newspaper reporter to visit Norma, who was suffering from dementia, and ask her questions about Renae … what presents she gave her, who looked after her and took her to the doctor.” Kriedemann said she suspected her mother’s signature was forged to transfer her share of the farm to her brothers for R6m, below market value. She said Garry had pestered her to sign financial statements but had withheld material information about the company’s affairs. Garry denied acting fraudulently but conceded he and his sister were not on speaking terms. He labelled the lawsuit “extreme conduct which resulted in much hurt and acrimony in the family”. In December, Roberson placed One Vision under provisional liquidation and called on the opposing parties to show why it should not be liquidated. The matter will be back in court on May 30.
“It is apparent that the relationship between the siblings, particularly between Garry and Renae, has irretrievably broken down and communication between them is not possible,” said Roberson.
“This conclusion is supported by Garry’s failure to inform Renae, his sister, of their mother’s death.”
The feud showed no sign of letting up this week, with Rieger vowing to take it to the Constitutional Court. “You can’t liquidate a company because shareholders have a disagreement,” he said. “I spent all my life looking after my sister. I have given her millions before. I paid for her first house in Gonubie, she has two houses in Tokai [in Cape Town] in a big estate that were paid for by me. I looked after her mother while she was in Cape Town.
“She insisted that we send my mother to an old age home, she said we were spending too much money on her. She sent presents, which I sent back because I wanted her to bring the presents herself. It was such stupid presents, a bar of Kit Kat and some cheap perfume.”
Kriedemann said Rieger’s vow to appeal the ruling was evidence of “Garry’s ongoing destructive behaviour. The judge made her findings on the merits of the matter and Garry’s suggestion that she did otherwise is contemptuous of the court and the judge.”
She denied Rieger had bought her homes or given her money. “The only income I have earned which is associated with Garry is my share of the profit distributions of the previous family partnership,” she said.