CEO thrown out of R35m home for refusing to pay
● The CEO of a company that wants to tackle load-shedding with gas imports has been evicted from his R35m home on Joburg’s most expensive street because he refuses to pay for it.
Aldworth Mbalati, 40, who says he made his first million by the time he was 21, has until December 20 to leave the chateau-style home in Killarney Road, Sandhurst.
Mbalati says he has spent R14m on maintenance and renovations since moving in nearly two years ago, and another R13m on furnishing and decorating.
But after paying a R3m deposit, he has refused to hand over the R32m he still owes investment tycoon Angus Murray for the seven-bedroom, four-garage home.
Murray cut off the electricity and gave Mbalati an ultimatum to leave by December 31 last year. When this failed, he went to court, and this week Johannesburg high court judge Steven Kuny issued an eviction order.
Kuny rejected Mbalati’s argument that Murray’s shelf companies that own the two plots on which the house is built must refund him for the renovation work.
“The [companies] allege that they do not regard the refurbishment and renovations as an improvement to the property because they destroyed the French chateau style of the house,” he said. “They contend that they will incur substantial expenditure in restoring the house to its original style.”
Murray, 52, the Australian-born founder and CEO of New Jersey investment firm Castlestone Management, put the 1,500m2 house on the market in 2020.
Killarney Road has consistently been named South Africa’s second most expensive street in property company surveys — beaten only by Nettleton Road in Clifton, Cape Town — and the price tag Pam Golding Properties attached to the house was R39m.
In January 2021, Murray accepted an offer of R35m from Mbalati’s family trust, Genesis, and the DNG Energy founder and CEO moved in with his wife, Lindokuhle, and their children.
By March, a R3m deposit had been paid and Mbalati was paying monthly occupational rental of R100,000, but deadlines for the payment of the balance came and went.
In the meantime, Pam Golding estate agent Tasha Rossen obtained permission from Murray for Mbalati to install a pool fence, repair the roof and walls, upgrade security and landscape the 4,500m2 grounds.
When Rossen asked Mbalati for an undertaking that he would “make good” any “unacceptable” changes if the sale fell through, he replied in an email: “My ethos in life is to keep all my commitments. I do commit that in the unlikely event of the sale not going through I will do good.”
Once Murray launched his eviction application, however, Mbalati argued in an affidavit that he agreed to pay for the work only because he envisaged becoming the owner of the property. He should be allowed to keep the property until he was compensated, he said.
Kuny disagreed: “The offer to purchase was cancelled as a result of Genesis’s breach. Restitution of certain of the works was agreed upon. In my view, in these circumstances Genesis cannot be permitted to maintain a right to occupy the property.”
The work done was more extensive than the list Mbalati submitted when he moved in, said Kuny. Hyde Park interior design company Kim H carried out “extensive renovations to the interior and exterior of the property”, and Sandton firm Blue Line Design was subcontracted to do some of the work.
Mbalati alleged he had spent more than R27m, but Murray believed he owed Mbalati only R773,701, and he provided the court with a payment guarantee for this amount. In a separate action, Mbalati is suing Murray for the money spent on the property. Mbalati launched DNG Energy in 2013. Its board chair is former British MP and anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain.
The company website says it is “leading the delivery of liquefied natural gas in SA to fast-track the adoption of a cleaner and cheaper fuel alternative in the market”.
In 2021, DNG blocked an emergency programme to add 2,000MW of electricity generation capacity to South Africa’s grid when it mounted a legal challenge after its bids were rejected.
Its court application to replace winning bidder Karpowership was dismissed in January, but it has been given leave to appeal, and the lawsuit has prevented successful bidders including Scatec ASA, Acwa Power Co, TotalEnergies and Électricité de France from concluding financing arrangements.
DNG is suing its landlord after power was cut off at its main industrial warehouse after a dispute about payment of bills. It has admitted being unable to pay senior managers their full salaries.