‘Prince’ evades the law and his creditors

EMBATTLED businessman “prince” Sifiso Zulu has not only managed to evade the law while living the high life, but a string of creditors want their money from him, including Ithala Development Finance Corporation, which he still owes nearly R5 million.

In a week in which Zulu was once again challenged to prove his links to the Zulu royal household, The Sunday Independent this week confirmed that, despite catching a R38 000 business- class flight to Dubai, Zulu has not repaid a cent of the R4.8m loan granted to him and an erstwhile business partner in 2003.

The Sunday Independent is in possession of documents detailing a string of creditors who have obtained judgments against the former president of the Durban Chamber of Commerce, after he failed to pay them.

Musa Ntsibande, the attorney acting for Ithala in its sequestration of Zulu’s estate, confirmed this week that Zulu had not repaid the loan and said the master of the high court would soon be appointing a new trustee to look into Zulu’s affairs.

“The (previous) trustee received no co-operation from Zulu. He kept on saying he will see him, but he never did, until the trustee retired.

“So the new trustee has to secure all of Zulu’s assets for the benefit of all creditors.

“With sequestration, if you are owed R100, there is no guarantee that you will recover the same amount, but we want to recover as much as we can. We know that he is capable of hiding his assets, so it is in my client’s best interests that we unearth all assets we may not be aware of.”

Another high-ranking Ithala official confirmed that Zulu had not paid a cent towards the loan and that radical measures had been put in place to recoup the money.

“It has been a protracted battle between us and the client. We have not left the issue hanging, we are pursuing it,” said the official.

Ithala has had to write off R55m in bad debts from its loan book in the current financial year. The official said that even though some debt were written off, it did not mean the individuals concerned “got away with murder”.

He said everyone who took a loan, regardless of their standing, should service the loan.

The source insisted that this was the reason why Ithala had not approved loans to politically connected people.

Meanwhile, Royal Household spokesman Prince Mbonisi Zulu reiterated that Zulu’s royal links and blood lineage were not known. He said the royal family was big and it was difficult to prove who was legitimately a prince and who was not.

“All we asked was for him to name the royal house he belonged to. Everyone who claims to be a royal prince is also told to do the same thing. This is a question you should put to him and he should answer you… ” said Mbonisi Zulu, King Goodwill Zwelithini’s younger brother.

Sifiso Zulu was not available for comment this week.

Zulu went on the Dubai “business trip” on the same day he was to have appeared in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to appeal against a three-year sentence for his role in a vehicle collision that left two young students dead and a number of others injured in Durban in 2008.

Zulu was sentenced to an effective three years in jail in August last year, but took the conviction and sentence on appeal.

His appeal was scheduled for September 29, but neither he nor his lawyer arrived in court that day and his appeal was struck off the roll. Last week, he was given 48 hours to hand himself over to begin serving his sentence. But in an urgent application in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday, he sought to have his appeal reinstated, arguing that his lawyer had left him in the lurch.

Angry victims of the accident and opposition political parties last week questioned why Zulu was a free man, living the high life and taking business- class flights overseas.

Last week, families of the people killed and injured when the socialite’s BMW X5 ran a red light on Durban’s NMR Avenue (Masabalala Yengwa) in 2008 expressed anger at delays in finalising the matter, saying that Zulu appeared to be receiving preferential treatment.

Zulu is one of the directors of Emtateni Logistics, who have the multimillion-rand Durban parking meter contract. - Sunday Independent