Lawyers representing a KwaZulu-Natal medical doctor who is struggling to recoup over R300 000 loan from acclaimed influencer Vusi Thembekwayo have returned to court to obtain an order to serve combined summons on the elusive businessman via e-mail.
Aricum Attorneys, who represent Dr Jehron Pillay, said serving summons on Thembekwayo have proven to be a mission, almost impossible, as he is nowhere to be found.
To rub salt into the wound, they said, Thembekwayo’s lawyer Suzette Marx of Marx & Associate has refused to receive the summons from the sheriff on behalf of the revered motivational speaker, saying she has not received instruction from him to do so.
In the application, which was filed in the high court in Johannesburg in May, Dominique Aricum is pleading with the court to grant her a leave for substitute services of combined summons she obtained in March, so she can serve Thembekwayo via an e-mail.
In the application, which we have seen, Aricum said the summons was issued on January 13 against Tembekwayo in his personal capacity, after he failed to pay back more than R390 000 loan he took from Pillay in July 2021.
She said she instructed the sheriff to serve the summons on Thembekwayo’s known business premises in Sandton.
The address, she said, was stated in their other business agreement in which Thembekwayo signed in his representative capacity.
On or about January 31, Aricum stated in the application, the sheriff of Sandton south attempted service at Thembekwayo’s place of business but delivered a return of no service, saying he could not locate the address.
She said Thembekwayo, who regularly posts updates about his international travels, stated the location of both his LinkedIn page and Instagram account as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
“While it is known that the defendant is occasionally in South Africa, he is frequently overseas and his whereabouts are difficult to pinpoint,” read the papers in part.
She further said the lawyers enquired from Marx if she would be able to accept service of the combined summons on his behalf.
Thembekwayo, who has separated from his wife Palesa Mahlolo, is in the process of divorce.
Marx, according to Aricum, came into the picture as Thembekwayo’s attorney of record in 2022, when she sent the influencer a letter of demand for the outstanding amount due to Pillay and using his business e-mail address.
On or about August 1 2022, she said Marx advised her that she was Thembekwayo’s attorney of record in the matter.
She also said the acknowledgment of debt that Thembekwayo altered and signed and made two payments of half-a-million rands loan he took from Pillay, provides the offices of Marx & Associates as his domicilium citandi et executandi address (the address nominated by a party in a legal suit to receive papers or documents).
However, because Thembekwayo refused to sign that acknowledgement of debt in his personal name, but instead altered the details of his company, she felt obligated to bring this application for a substituted service for the avoidance of doubt on proper and effective service on his personal capacity.
She said her offices have continued to communicate with Marx & Associates’ offices throughout this matter, and they have remained, to the best of her knowledge, the attorneys of record.
Aricum said on or about March 10 2023, she enquired from Marx whether she would be prepared to accept service on behalf of Thembekwayo to eliminate the need for a costly substitute of service application.
Marx replied that she had no instructions to accept service of the summons.
“In the circumstances, there is [a] good reason to believe that if the summons is served upon the defendant via e-mail, as well as on his attorney of record, it will be brought to the defendant’s personal attention and will constitute effective service.
“I respectfully submit that an order directing substituted service would be just and equitable in the circumstances,” reads the affidavit.
“I humbly pray for an order in terms of notice of motion to which this founding affidavit has been annexed.”
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