B4SA chair Martin Kingston has been trying for four years to get struggle stalwart Mendi Msimang's son to vacate multimillionrand property
● A multimillion-rand property in soughtafter Waterkloof Ridge in Pretoria is at the centre of a bitter legal battle between a prominent businessman and the family of late struggle stalwart Mendi Msimang.
The four-year legal dispute has culminated in an order by the Pretoria high court that Msimang’s son, Zimpande Msimang, and his wife and children must vacate the house by February 29.
Business for South Africa (B4SA) chair Martin Kingston has a 55% share in the house after signing a joint-venture agreement with the struggle stalwart in 2014.
The dispute has split the Msimang family, with some members distancing themselves from Zimpande.
The Sunday Times has learnt that the agreement was signed after Msimang had borrowed large sums of money from Kingston, his then son-in-law. The two had been close for decades, dating back to Msimang’s days in the ANC office in London during apartheid.
Msimang, a former treasurer of the ANC, died in December 2018, aged 89, after a long battle with cancer.
Kingston, a former CEO of Rothschild & Co, wants his money back. But a statement sent to the Sunday Times this week by “The Msimang Family” claims the “sentimental” family home has cultural ties and that Msimang, shortly before his death, had lamented signing “a colonial contract, a devil’s contract”.
At the time the agreement was signed, Kingston was married to Msimang’s stepdaughter, Pulane, who is the daughter of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. They have since separated.
In her seven-page judgment, judge El
marie van der Schyff said Zimpande, who is the executor of his father’s estate and was cited as the first respondent ... must vacate the property by February 29 “unless the parties come to an alternative arrangement, captured in writing”.
Should they fail to adhere to the order, “the sheriff of the high court, assisted by the SAPS, if necessary, is authorised to evict” them.
Van der Schyff ordered Zimpande “to take all steps necessary and sign all documents required for the sale of the house without a reserve price by public auction”.
“The proceeds of the sale, less the auctioneer’s commission, are to be paid as follows: 55% to the applicant [Kingston] and 45% to the deceased estate”.
Houses in the area sell for between R3.5m and R7.5m.
Van der Schyff’s judgment found that “the enforcement of the joint-venture agreement does not offend public policy”.
“The Msimang family can retain their family home if they procure the applicant’s 55% interest therein. If the property is sold at public auction for a ridiculously low price, as Mr Msimang seems to fear, that would only be to his benefit because he would also be able to bid on the property.”
The 2014 agreement between Mendi Msimang and Kingston, which the Sunday Times has seen, states what would happen if either of them died, including “offering the property for sale by private treaty on terms to be agreed upon between Martin and the executors of Mendi estate within three months of” their appointment.
“The proceeds of the sale of the property, less estate agents’ or auctioneer’s commission ... shall be paid pro rata to their respective interests to Martin and to the estate of Mendi,” said the agreement signed by Kingston and Msimang.
The family statement sent to the Sunday Times claims Kingston had promised Msimang, on his deathbed, that the debt would be expunged and “he did not need to worry about his home”.
“For a much-loved stepdaughter to have written a legal contract that wounded a devoted stepfather to the grave, is sad to say the least.
“Martin promised uBaba [Msimang] that the issue of the house would be resolved for the family and the debt expunged. Five years later, we continue to be bullied and dragged to the high court as illegal squatters in our father’s house,” the statement said.
“Martin reneged on his promise to his ‘favourite uncle Mendi’. Evidently, not all of us value our word more than the shillings.”
The family said that an amount of R700,000, which formed part of the debt which led to Kingston owning 55% of the family home, “was often referred to as Pulane’s lobola in our family circles”.
“As to when and why this ‘lobola’ money was added or converted to the 2014 contract was a great source of pain for our father, who on his deathbed earnestly requested we have this resolved so he may leave from his house to the grave,” the family said in the statement.
“The stalwart [Msimang] lamented: ‘I am not sure how I ended up signing such a colonial contract, a devil’s contract,’” the statement said.
The family said they had offered Kingston their “other private home, which had better economic value, in exchange for a sentimental family home with cultural ties”.
“It is rather disheartening that the Kingstons, whom our father loved dearly, are determined to ruin his estate, reputation and family name.”
However, Kingston, 66, disputes the family’s version of events, denying he promised to expunge the debt. He said no lobola was paid for Pulane. “Neither Pulane nor I would have agreed to it.”
He said: “Zimpande and his wife, Afrika, would have liked me to gift my share of the property to the estate and, therefore, effectively to them. That was never my intention nor [was it in] the agreement,” Kingston told the Sunday Times.
He said Zimpande and his family had moved into the house and had been staying “without either permission or the right to do so”.
“We tried for two years before reluctantly going to court ... As confirmed by the judge, Zimpande and Afrika are living in the property illegally. They deliberately ignored an agreement entered into between Mendi Msimang and myself and to which they were not, and are not, a party.”
Kingston said though he was relieved the legal battle was over, he felt he “would rather we had acted in accordance with the agreement from the outset”.
Mendi Msimang’s other son, Mandla, who lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has distanced himself from the statement. “I have no idea of a family statement,” Mandla said yesterday.
Approached for comment, Pulane said it was “absolute rubbish” that she had drawn up the shareholding contract. She also denied any lobola was ever paid for her by Kingston.
“It was a lawyer who drafted it. I did not even know they had a contract until Uncle Mendi told me about it,” she said.
Pulane said Kingston and her stepfather had enjoyed a close 40-year relationship which involved them going on holiday together before she came into the businessman’s life.
“My father’s relationship with Martin began 40 years ago when my father was the chief representative of the ANC in London, running the ANC office there during exile, and that relationship continued until he passed away.”
She described the men’s relationship as like father and son as they often would go on holiday without anyone else.
“My father regarded Martin as his son ... long before Martin and I were even married.”
She said that after being diagnosed with cancer, Mendi had lived with her and Kingston for about five years.
“It was only when he got better that he went back to his home in Pretoria. It was Martin who was taking care of him because I was often busy with our two children.”
Pulane denied the Waterkloof property was of cultural significance for the Msimang family.
“There’s no cultural significance, that’s just balderdash ... in one of the affidavits it was stated that there are umbilical cords buried in the garden, which is untrue,” she said.
“These people [Zimpande] did not even know my father well, like Mandla and I did, as he did not have a close relationship with his other children,” she said.
She said Msimang had spent only the last five years of his life getting to know his other children after moving back to Pretoria after his first cancer scare shortly after Tshabalala-Msimang’s death.
The court order states that should the executor of the estate “fail and/or refuse to sign all documents required, as set out above, the sheriff is authorised and directed to sign all documents required for the sale of the property without a reserve price by public auction”.