Black Leopards taken to court over failure to pay for a Mercedes-Benz

Black Leopards owner David Thidiela has been dragged into a nasty legal showdown between his club and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services after the team failed to pay for the instalment of the vehicle whose sale agreement he has signed.

Mercedes Benz Financial Services has applied for a court order to force Black Leopards to hand over the vehicle after the Limpopo-based outfit struggled to keep up with its monthly instalments.

In the application submitted to the Johannesburg High Court last week, Mercedes-Benz lawyers, Strauss Daly Incorporated, said the first division club, represented by Thidiela as the outfit’s director, received a loan of more than R1-million from the company to purchase the vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz C200 on January 24, 2019.

They said the club paid a deposit of more than R324 000 before the car could be delivered to it after a sale agreement was signed by both parties.

“The agreement furthermore states that should the defendant fail to pay the payments on the due date or fail to satisfy any of its other obligations in terms of the agreement, the plaintiff shall, inter alia, and without prejudicing any of its rights in law, be entitled to cancel the agreement, claim return and possession of the vehicle, and retain all payments already made in terms of the agreement,” the lawyers stated in the papers.

They said that the club and the company also agreed that the entity would claim payment of such damages after the agreement was cancelled due to the team’s tardiness.

The lawyers explained in the papers that Black Leopards breached the agreement when it defaulted on the luxury vehicle’s monthly instalments and was more than R34 000 in arrears.

“The plaintiff has performed all of its obligations in terms of the agreement.

“The defendant has breached the agreement in that it has failed to pay the payments in terms of the agreement in that on 20 August 2024 it was in arrears with its payments in the amount of R 34 461.24,” read the court papers.

The lawyers further stated that Mercedes-Benz wrote a letter to Black Leopards after they breached the agreement, requesting them to settle the arrears and keep the account up to date, but the pleas were ignored. Due to Black Leopards’ breach of the agreement, stated the lawyers further, Mercedes-Benz terminated the agreement.


“The plaintiff has suffered damages arising from the cancellation of the agreement in that the defendant retains possession of the motor vehicle; alternatively, the value of the motor vehicle has decreased since the delivery of the motor vehicle to the defendant.

“Wherefore, the plaintiff prays for an order confirming termination of the agreement. An order directing the defendant, or anybody else in whose possession it may be, to forthwith deliver to the plaintiff a Mercedes-Benz C200.

“An order authorising the plaintiff to apply to the court on the same papers, supplemented insofar as may be necessary, for judgement in respect of any damages and further expenses incurred by the plaintiff in the repossession of the said vehicle, whose amount can only be determined once the vehicle has been repossessed by the plaintiff and has been sold,” read the papers.

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