A Zimbabwean businessman has accused the South African Revenue Service (Sars) of illegally confiscating personal property belonging to him – including Kruger gold coins worth an estimated R600m – when they conducted a raid on his girlfriend’s house in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, last month.
The man, millionaire Frank Buyanga Sadiqi, said that
personal jewellery, watches and cellphones were attached during the raid, and
is now taking Sars to court in a bid to recover the “stolen” gold.
He said that the coins are “conservatively estimated” at over
R600 million.
Buyanga Sadiqi, who lives in Sandton, is the founder of the
African Medallion Group (AMG). The Sowetan reported that he said in an
affidavit submitted to the Pretoria High Court that the Kruger rands are part
of trading stock for the company, and that they were seized illegally, along
with the other personal items he listed. He said that they acted in an
unprofessional manner.
“Sars unlawfully, without justification and without my
permission and against my protests seized from me and dispossessed me of gold
(Kruger) coins that I had with me at the time,” he said.
“My involvement in the events of the day on which the
illegal Sars raid took place, and the fact that the raid was illegally
perpetrated on me and the companies with which I am associated with, render it
essential that I be allowed to make common cause with her application,” he said
in court papers.
He and his companies are being investigated by Sars, but he
insists that he has only sought to help those suffering the effects of
COVID-19, having spent over R5 million distributing food parcels to the poor.
He sad that his various businesses in South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Liberia are the subject of an “intentional smear campaign being
conducted via the offices of SARS to upset and denigrate the brand that I have
built, that I am associated with through my companies.”
Buyanga Sadiqi has something of turbulent history with Sars
– and cars, for that matter – and the revenue service said in 2018 that he
needed to prove that his Rolls-Royce Ghost, imported from the UK, was not
stolen.
He alleged that the manner in which those who conducted the
raid questioned him about the ownership of his fleet of luxury cars had been
out of line.
“During the illegal raid, Sars repeatedly questioned my
decision to drive my BMW motor vehicle (which I generally drive every day) and
expressed severe disappointment to the fact that I was not using one of my luxury
motor vehicles,” he said.
Buyanga Sadiqi’s girlfreind, whose house was raided, lodged
a complaint with the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 26 October, and
Buyanga Sadiqi is adamant that prior to the raid he had made every effort to
discuss the matter with Sars.
“My legal representatives, have on no less than two
occasions (October 28 2020 and November 4 2020) officially extended written
invitations to the officials of Sars to meet with their investigators and to
address and answer all questions they might have,” he said in court papers.
Through his lawyers, William Wilcock Inc., Buyanga
Sadiqi claimed he tried in vain to
arrange a meeting with Sars and be given details as to what the revenue
collector needed to clear up the matter.
According to court papers, the Sars forfeiture unit raided
Dube’s house on October 26. Dube filed a police report against Sars and later
took the revenue service to court.
Now Sadiqi has approached the high court to be included in
Dube’s case because he claims the forfeited gold belongs to him.
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