Durban - He has lost a battle, but not the war, and Teazers strip club owner Shaun Russouw says he is determined to prove his former boss and partner Lolly Jackson had a second will, which he kept in a red file in his office, leaving the Durban business to him.
“He [Jackson] told me I would get the [Durban] building, the [Durban] business and his green Lamborghini,” Russouw told The Mercury.
The future of the business that he has run for the past 10 years is now in limbo. Jackson’s widow Demi, who has inherited most of the slain sleaze king’s multimillion-rand estate, won a court battle on Friday evicting Russouw from the Springfield Park premises from which the club has operated since it opened in 2000.
He has until the end of this month to get out, but is still considering his legal options.
Russouw, in opposing Demi’s application, said he had an oral partnership agreement with Jackson’s Interactive Trading that entitled him to continue trading from the property.
In his judgment on the matter, Durban High Court Acting Judge Maurice Pillemer suggested that any deal between the two men had been personal, had not involved Interactive Trading and that the deal had ended with the death of Jackson. He also criticised Russouw for not “setting out the full facts” regarding this “improbable partnership” and why, for example, it was not reduced to writing.
In an interview with The Mercury and in an affidavit he has provided to the newspaper, Russouw said the reason the deal was verbal was because at the time he took over the shares from Jackson’s erstwhile partner, Leon Rautenbach, the club owed R13.8 million to the taxman.
“I was told to hold back until this issue was resolved. But Lolly handed me a signed CK 2 document giving me a 50 percent share.”
He said that in March 2010 – just two months before Jackson was murdered – he had been admitted to hospital for high blood pressure. On his discharge, the two men had had a conversation about what would happen if either of them died.
“Lolly said if anything happened to me he would take care of my wife and children.
“He said if anything happened to him, I would be able to carry on with the business and I would get the building and one of his cars.
“He said I should ask his personal assistant because she had signed as a witness on his will.”
It is this will that Russouw believes exists and wants to get his hands on.
He has given The Mercury an affidavit written by Jackson’s assistant in which she says Jackson’s attorney came to their offices in March 2010 with a will that she was asked to witness. She says she “skimmed the document” and saw the names Greg Fedele [Jackson’s partner in Cape Town], Shaun Russouw and his long-time financial manager, Ricardo Fabre.
She says the will was put in a red file labelled “Teazers Rivonia Liquor stock count” because this file would not be taken should Sars raid the offices. It is not the same will (dated February 2005) that is being used by the Master, she says.
Russouw has shown The Mercury invoices from the lawyer, which state that he drafted a will, and an e-mail in which the lawyer refers to the will. The attorney, in correspondence, has denied any knowledge of it. Russouw has also given The Mercury a “Teazers” letterhead that lists him as a director.
“I am not fighting for anything that is not mine,” he said.
“What have I been working for for 10 years? This judgment gives me absolutely nothing. I am waiting for legal advice on the way forward,” he said. - The Mercury