Johannesburg - The considerable estate of murdered strip club owner Lolly Jackson could suffer the same fate as the assets of former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema - sold off to settle outstanding tax bills.
Sars has won a court application to have two curators appointed to take control of the Jackson assets worth millions following a Pretoria High Court ruling.
Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay said the assets were to be preserved to help foot an outstanding tax bill of about R100 million.
Jackson was murdered on May 3, 2010 at a house in Edleen allegedly by George Smith, who is in custody in Cyprus where attempts to extradite him are under way.
“We went to the (Pretoria) High Court, and we asked the court to appoint two curators to do an inventory of more than 35 companies and entities associated with the deceased,” Lackay said.
“This was to preserve assets in the companies as well as the deceased’s estate.”
The court ordered on April 26 that Cloete Murray of Secheba Trust Limited and Zeenath Kajee of Westrust Limited be appointed to jointly act as curator bonis (legal guardians) of the assets.
Sars said this was to “secure the collection of those taxes that are currently due as well as those taxes which Sars anticipate would be due by the respondents”.
Several people were killed after Jackson’s death, including German supercar conversion specialist Uwe Gemballa and underworld boss Cyril Beeka. Beeka had close links to Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir who was also a friend of Jackson.
It has been reported that the hit on Beeka was ordered after he agreed to become a section 204 State witness and testify against the killers of Jackson and Gemballa.
The murders of Gemballa, Jackson and Beeka are among the most sensational underworld killings in the past decade.
Beeka was killed 13 months after Gemballa’s death and 10 months after Jackson’s.
Jackson’s attorney Ian Jordaan and his former business partner Mark Andrews were also both murdered.
The Weekend Argus reported that Beeka was allegedly present during, or immediately after, the attacks on Jackson and Gemballa and that he knew how the gunman who killed Jackson obtained the gun.
Beeka was reportedly tasked with getting rid of the gun after Jackson’s killing.
He is suspected of having dragged Jackson’s body from the murder scene, and trying to put it into a Jeep, but it was too heavy.
Beeka’s security guards were reportedly present when Gemballa was tortured. Security footage shows a person buying pay-as-you-go top-up vouchers allegedly used by security personnel employed by Beeka, who held Gemballa hostage, to enable Gemballa to phone his wife in Germany to ask for a ransom of R12m.
The State offered Beeka the deal on condition that he not only gave courts a full account of how Jackson and Gemballa were murdered, but that his testimony would lead to the conviction of the murderers.
In March this year, forensic consultant Paul O’ Sullivan confirmed that Beeka was about to conclude a section 204 deal with the State, and said he believed this was the motive for his murder.
The Star