The front page of the brochure for the auction. Picture: screenshot The National Consumer Tribunal has fined an auctioneer R250 000 and ruled he must refund a couple from Lephalale in Limpopo after selling them a game farm. The brochure for the sale showed all the amenities, including a dam, as well as some of the animals, including a crocodile.
The only problem was that the farm did not have a crocodile, nor a dam. These were actually on the neighbour’s farm. Juan and Freda Scholtz placed the winning bid for the game farm, Ba Batle, at an auction run by Root X Africa Auctioneers CC on the farm in June 2022.
According to the auction advert, prospective buyers could view the farm for an hour before the auction starts. The Scholz-couple arrived two hours before the auction would start to ensure they could still view the 370 hectare farm before bidding on it. However, they had limited opportunity as the gate was closed when they arrived.
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When the auctioneer, Dirk Pienaar, eventually provided access, he told them that there was a hunting party on the farm and therefore they could only view some of the farm buildings. This meant that the Scholtz couple had to rely on the marketing material provided in the bidder’s pack of Root X Africa Auctioneers, which included a photograph of a dam and a crocodile. Juan Scholz placed the winning bid at the auction for R6.6 million and Freda Scholz paid the deposit of R660 000, as well as the auctioneer’s commission of R569 250.
However, the next day, they learnt that despite the photographs of a dam in the bidder’s pack, the dam was not on the farm they had bought but on an adjacent farm. The farm they bought had no dams at all, and obviously no crocodile either. The couple then decided to cancel the sale because they did not get what they paid for: a dam and a crocodile.
They demanded that Pienaar refund them the R1.2 million they paid and cancel the sale but fought in vain to retrieve their money from the auctioneer. They consulted a local attorney who sent a number of letters to the auctioneer, but he refused to refund the payments despite having plenty of time and opportunity. Juan Scholz says it was tough to get a response out of Root X Africa or its attorneys.
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