More than 20 Buffalo City Metro vehicles attached by the sheriff of the court earlier in January over a disputed boxing sponsorship deal are to be auctioned if the municipality fails to settle a R2.2m debt by February 12. The 22 vehicles — including traffic and law enforcement sedans, trucks and bakkies — were removed from various municipal premises on January 15 and 16 after BCM allegedly failed to honour a sponsorship agreement concluded in 2023 with Bunirox (Pty) Ltd, trading as Xaba Holdings. The vehicles include seven Nissan NP300 Hardbody bakkies, four NP200s, five Polo Vivos, two Isuzu single and double cabs, a Toyota Quantum and three Isuzu trucks.
Since their attachment, the vehicles have been stored at a sheriff’s warehouse in East London and are scheduled to be auctioned in Quigney on February 12 unless the city resolves the matter. A notice of sale in execution was served on BCM on Tuesday, authorising the auction. Matiti’s attorney, Akhona Mafani, said preparations were under way.
“We are in full swing. There is no court order that says we should not go ahead and auction. “Our client is well within his rights to proceed,” Mafani said.
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The latest order follows earlier court rulings in November and on January 14 instructing BCM to pay the R2.2m as well as permitting the attachment of municipal assets. BCM’s urgent attempt on January 15 to interdict the sheriff was unsuccessful after the East London High Court declined to hear the matter on an urgent basis, ruling there was nothing urgent about the municipality’s rescission application — essentially an application to have the original ruling declared invalid. At the time, BCM spokesperson Bongani Fuzile said the metro had also applied for a stay of execution while preparing a rescission bid, citing “serious flaws in how the default judgment was obtained”.
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