Johannesburg – Businessman and ANC heavyweight Tokyo Sexwale has attracted the attention of the liquidators of Trillian Capital who are demanding he pays back millions of rands he received from the Gupta-linked company.
Sexwale, who chaired Trillian, a company owned by Gupta lieutenants Salim Essa and Eric Wood, was paid a total of R7.5-million by Trillian’s subsidiary Trillian Capital Practitioners (TPC).
The former Gauteng premier was paid R500 000 a month between November 2016 and July 2017, when he resigned following the release of an independent investigation into TCP showing its proximity to the state-connected Gupta family.
The report by advocate Geoff Budlender revealed several links between Trillian and the Guptas. It shows that on the same day that Tegeta, a Gupta-linked company, paid for Optimum coal mine, a large sum of money was withdrawn from Trillian’s current account.
When resigning, Sexwale said allegations of state capture, along with the power of the Guptas, were destroying the governing party and country.
The liquidators want him to pay back the money. More than half the money was paid to Sexwale after it became public knowledge that Trillian’s owners allegedly had prior knowledge that former president Jacob Zuma was about to fire then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and had planned to cash in on it.
The funds, which the liquidators contend constituted disposition or undue preference, were paid when the company’s assets exceeded its liabilities.
The shocking tidbits are contained in the combined summons the liquidators filed against Sexwale at the Joburg High Court on Wednesday.
The court papers, which are in our possession, show that Sexwale was appointed on April 1 2016 by Trillian Management Capital (TMC) as its independent non-executive chairman.
Sexwale, the former minister of human sett lements, provided what is called “strategic insights and leadership” to the TPC board.
The liquidators said each of the subject payments constitute a disposition by TCP without value and that at the time of or immediately after the payments, the company’s liabilities exceeded its assets.
“In the circumstances, the plaintiff s are entitled to an order that the subject payments be set aside, and that the defendant be ordered to make payment to the plaintiff s in the amount of R7.5-million,” according to the court papers.
Sexwale returned to the public spotlight last month after his outlandish claims that trillions of rands from a “heritage fund”, which had been meant to fund free higher education and finance Covid- 19 mitigation measures, had been looted from the Reserve Bank.
The liquidators, who are winding up TMC to recoup over R600-million for Eskom, said the power utility obtained a court order in the Joburg High Court, which indicated that TCP shall be deemed not to be a separate juristic person in re- The funds were paid when the company’s assets exceeded its liabilities sponse to any right or obligation or liability of a shareholder of the company. In July 2019, Trillian suffered a major blow when the high court in Pretoria ordered it to pay Eskom R600-million it illegally received from the struggling power utility.
The judgment marked the first case in which a company linked to state capture was ordered to return ill-gotten money to a state-owned company. In a scathing judgment, the full bench of the court said if no action was taken against Trillian, it would create the impression that crime paid.
Sunday World reported last week that Transnet has mounted a legal batt le to recoup over R299-million of its employees’ pension funds allegedly siphoned by Wood at the height of the family’s state capture in SA.
Transnet applied for an order in the Joburg High Court last week to sequestrate Wood and to att ach his multi-million personal properties and use the proceeds to pay back the funds, which belonged to 4 000 Transnet employees.
Also read: Transnet tries to recoup R299m from Gupta associate Eric Wood
Wood’s immovable assets include his residential property in Sandhurst, Sandton and a game farm in Lephalale, Limpopo, which are reportedly valued at R35-million and R20million, respectively. Wood’s movable assets consist of a plethora of luxury vehicles and a R12-million Bell helicopter Texton.
Sexwale ignored our phone calls and messages we sent to him.
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