More trouble for Zahara as bank aims to auction her townhouse

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After having awards stolen from her townhouse in a recent break-in, Afropop sensation Zahara, whose given name is Bulelwa Mkutukana, faces another hurdle as creditors of the residence in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, could put it up for auction on May 7.

This follows a writ of execution obtained from the Johannesburg High Court.

The Loliwe hitmaker has been at loggerheads with Nedbank for nearly four years, after struggling to repay a R1.9 million loan, for which she secured surety with her townhouse.

This prompted the commercial bank to institute a notice of motion, initially filed on April 6 2018, at the same court to either compel the singer to settle the amount or risk having her home sold to recover what was due to the financial institution.

Nedbank’s court paper read: On or about July 25 2012 and at Johannesburg, the plaintiff, duly represented, and the defendant concluded a written agreement of loan, subject to the terms and conditions contained in the loan agreement. The plaintiff agreed to lend the defendant, who agreed to borrow from the plaintiff, the sum of R1.9 million upon security with the property [address withheld].

“The loan would be advanced to the defendant or on the defendant’s behalf, after registration of the mortgage bond and subject to compliance by the defendant with the terms and conditions of the loan agreement.”

Subsequent to the application, the court granted an execution order against Mkutukana’s house in October 2019, after she had allegedly stopped paying off the amount she owed (R17 665.40) for nearly six months.

The bank’s statement read: The defendant agreed that the mortgage bond was a continuing covering security for all and any sums of money which might be owing at the time of granting of the loan, or that might in the future be owing or claimable by the plaintiff from any cause mentioned in the mortgage bond and any other cause of whatsoever nature, and would remain in full force and effect until cancelled in the deeds registry, notwithstanding any fluctuation in, or temporary extinction of, the defendant’s indebtedness to the plaintiff from time to time.

The papers further showed that the singer, who is a winner of an SA Music Award (Samas), did not respond when a notice of set-down was issued by the same court on February 9, thus also breaching a settlement agreement with the bank, which had been signed in September 2019.

“In the event of the defendant breaching this settlement agreement by making any stipulated payment late, alternatively, by failing to make any stipulated payment, the plaintiff will be entitled to execute on the judgment that was granted against the defendant, as this judgment is still valid and has not been rescinded, and the attachment over the immovable property has not been uplifted,” the bank’s court paper further stated.

“The defendant, in the event of a breach as aforesaid, hereby acknowledges that the plaintiff will then proceed to a further sale in execution…”

Mkutukana told City Press that her failure to service the loan had been due to financial difficulties she had experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown regulations.

She said: I obviously couldn’t pay during the hard lockdown, but I’ve been making up payments over the past months. I paid R100 000 in December and followed that up with another R80 000 in February, paying the account in advance.

She said that, having paid for the past two months, she found it bizarre that the townhouse could be auctioned.

“I haven’t gotten a notice yet, but it would be unfair if it’s because of the past two months,” she said.

Last week City Press reported that Zahara had opened a case of robbery at the Honeydew police station, after six of her 17 Samas awards were allegedly stolen from the townhouse.

—City Press